Past News & Events

2022-23 NEWS & EVENTS

June 28, 2023 | English Studies
English & GSWS undergrad and MA Erica McKeen wins Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Novel set at Western
The prize recognizes the best debut books by Canadians in fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction.


June 26, 2023 | Writing Studies
Some smart, tough love for the City of London
Writing Studies professor and novelist Aaron Schneider, joined CBC London Morning to discuss his new book “The Supply Chain,” which is set in the Forest City.


June 17, 2023 | English Studies
Excellence in Teaching Award
Congratulations, Dr Alicia Robinet (PhD 2021), on being named an Excellence in Teaching Award recipient from Brescia University College for 2023!


June 17, 2023 | English Studies
In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Ninian Mellamphy
Ninian joined our department in 1970, specializing in Irish literature and Shakespeare. A much-admired teacher and scholar, Ninian also shared his passion for literature with those outside the academic world through the globetrotting literary tours he led for many years. Wherever he went, Ninian was an ebullient and vital spirit. He will be remembered for his boundless good will, kindness, and generousity.


April 25, 2023 | London Free Press
Professor Tom Cull and Western volunteers use unique method to restore Medway Creek bank
Western students and faculty members and staff from the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority add live sandbar willow stakes and native wetland shrubs to the banks of Medway Creek behind Westminster College on Western University's campus.


April 20, 2023 | Western News
Professor Joseph Nigel 2022-23 recipient of the Angela Armitt Award for Excellence in Teaching by Part-Time Faculty
Prof. Nigel Joseph, a long-time lecturer in Western’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities as well as at King’s University College, "represents everything that is best about an education in the arts and humanities," one nominator writes. His "breadth of knowledge, keen insight, compassion and profound commitment to justice and equity" see him routinely described by his students as "phenomenal".


March 27, 2023 | Western News
Lily Cho named vice-provost and associate vice-president (international)
A scholar of cultural studies and postcolonial literature and member of our department from 2004-2010, Lily Cho has been appointed as Western's incoming Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President (International) effective July 1. Welcome back, Lily!


February 2, 2023 | Western News
From English essay to EP: Western student Ariana Fig celebrates new release
English Major inspired to submit song after taking  Alice Munro Chair in Creativity course.


February 1, 2023 | Western News
Professors Miranda Green-Barteet and Alyssa MacLean mapping the stories of formerly enslaved Black Londoners
Interactive website to document histories of individuals who fled slavery in the U.S. and settled in the Forest City.


January 23, 2023 | Western News
Weldon Library celebrates revitalized look with grand reopening
The reception will include readings from Western’s writers-in-residence, January Rogers and Matthew Dawkins, as well as former library staff and poet, John Tyndall.


January 12, 2023 | Western News
Page from first book printed in England now housed at Western
Leaf from first edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, published on Caxton's printing press in 1476 offers students a 'hands-on' experience.


January 4, 2023 | Western News
Writing Studies Professor Tom Cull honoured for outstanding contributions to the City of London
Professor Cull served as London’s poet laureate from 2016 to 2018. Cull has been honoured for his work with the environment. Since 2012, he has been the director of Antler River Rally, a grassroots environmental group he co-founded with his partner and their son.


December 19, 2022 | Journalisten
Fashion Writing instructor Claudia Manley thinks all journalists should know something about fashion
Manley addresses the stigmas in fashion writing in her new textbook "Fashion Writing: A Primer" which will be published by Routledge this winter.


December 13, 2022 | Film Studies
Sarah Alexia Arksey-Njegovan selected for Telluride Student Symposium
Congratulations to Western student Sarah Alexia Arksey-Njegovan, one of fifty undergraduate and graduate students selected to participate in the Telluride Student Symposium at the 49th Annual Telluride Film Festival in the Colorado Rockies (Telluride, Colorado, Sept. 2-5 2022). The Telluride Student Symposium is a selective program open to 50 currently-enrolled undergraduate and graduate students from around the globe. Although there is an official application, the primary requirement for all applicants is a love of film. All participants in the Symposium receive a Student Festival pass and a modest travel stipend. The Telluride Film Festival’s Student Symposium looks for a diverse cross-section of the college and university students - undergraduate and graduate students; film and non-film majors; and geographical and cultural diversity. Students selected view approximately a dozen film programs over four days and attend exclusive symposia with filmmakers, producers, actors, and writers. Sarah is pursuing a Major in Psychology and a Minor in Creative Writing at Western. She has taken courses in Screenwriting, Film History and Film Appreciation at Western, Vancouver Acting School and Athabasca. In 2020 Sarah published an essay she wrote in Film 3335F Contemporary German Cinema in KINO: Western Undergraduate Research Journal.


November 25, 2022 | Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Shelley Clark, Administrative Assistant resigns as Chief Usher after 201 Western Convocation ceremonies
Shelley started ushering in 1990 during her time at the Faculty of Education. She continued the role when she moved to Arts & Humanities and became Chief Usher in July 2010. "It has been a role I enjoyed doing over the years," Shelley states, "and I made many friends with fellow volunteer ushers. We all worked together to make each ceremony special for our graduates and guests who attended." Thank you for your service, Shelley!


November 24, 2022 | Western News
Western’s Writer-in-Residence program celebrates 50th anniversary
Canada’s oldest literary residency has played host to 53 writers of different backgrounds, styles and genres, including poets, culinary writers, playwrights, and essayists, from famed literary minds like Alice Munro to vital and new voices like Alicia Elliot and Zalika Reid-Benta.


November 11, 2022 | Western News
English alumna on Most Powerful Women list
Jody Becker, BA'96, Chief strategy officer, executive vice-president, infrastructure services and technology at EllisDon Group, is one of 12 Western alumni to receive a 2022 Canada's Most Powerful Women award.


October 6, 2022 | Western News
Fulbright student award recipient furthers ‘instapoet’ research at Duke
Tanja Grubnic, PhD Candidate, is spending nine months at Duke University in North Carolina on a research placement funded by a Fulbright student award.


September 28, 2022 | Western News
English grad bequeaths $10M in scholarships
William (Bill) Hodgins, BA'54, bequeathed $10 million to Western to support scholarships in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. His donation will fund more than 16 scholarships each year, in perpetuity.


September 26, 2022 | Western News
English grad Erica McKeen, MA’20, returns to campus for the Creative Writers Speaker Series
McKeen will retrace the steps she walked as a student, as well as those she imagined for the protagonist as she reads from her debut novel Tear. Presented by Writing 2520A: Write Now! – Writers on Writing, everyone is invited on Wednesday, Sept. 28, and every week following, as different writers read from their work and talk about their craft.


August 29, 2022 | London Free Press
Student Writer-in-Residence aims to rally Western wordsmiths
Even before he could read in his homeland of Jamaica, author and poet Matthew Dawkins remembers immersing himself in stories, demanding they be read to him over and over again.


August 22, 2022 | Western News
Student Writer-in-Residence looks to unite Western’s creative community
An author and poet, Matthew Dawkins' debut novel is set for release this fall.


August 5, 2022 | English Studies
In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Stan Dragland
We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Professor Emeritus Stan Dragland, who taught for 29 years in the Department of English at Western. An icon in Canadian Literature, Professor Dragland was long admired as a dedicated educator, a literary critic, editor, poet, novelist, and community-builder.


July 26, 2022 | Western News
Award-winning poet joins Western as new Writer-in-Residence
January Roger’s expertise from print poetry to performance poetry, to radio, theatre and new media is reflective of English and Writing Studies’ evolving identity as a home to multiple programs in literature, theatre, performance, and film. Moreover, January's connection to her home community of Six Nations of the Grand River is key to our vision of nurturing our relationships with local Indigenous nations and learning from brilliant Indigenous artists across this region.


July 13, 2022 | Graduate Studies
2021-22 Sara Marie Jones Memorial Scholarship in English
The Sara Marie Jones Scholarship selection committee is delighted to award this year’s prize to Andrew Pudlak for his essay, "'Spirals of Power and Pleasure': Modes of Resistance in The History of Sexuality." The essay is a thoughtful and nuanced exploration of Foucault’s understanding of power and the strategies he proposes for resisting it that productively places his work in conversation with Butler and Derrida. The committee was impressed by the clarity with which the essay unpacked the core concepts of The History of Sexuality while situating it in relation to both Foucault’s earlier work and his commentators, and by the maturity and precision of the prose.

The Graduate Studies Office would like to thank those students who submitted an essay for the competition, as well as the members of the adjudication committee, Drs Aaron Schneider, Mary Helen McMurran, and Alison Lee, for their enthusiasm and dedication to our students, and for their work on this competition.

2021-22 NEWS & EVENTS

May 24, 2022 | Graduate Studies
Carl F. and Margaret E. Klinck Prize
The Committee on Graduate Studies has awarded the 2021-22 Klinck Prize to Sheetala Bhat for her thesis-in-progress, “Love Worlds: Decolonization through the Performance of Love in India and in Indigenous Theatre in Canada.” 

Sheetala's supervisor, Dr. Kim Solga, writes that Sheetala “is poised to break out as a major figure in theatre and performance research with the completion of her dissertation, a document offering a comparative focus on Turtle Island and South Asian political performance.” The committee believe that Sheetala’s work will make an excellent contribution to scholarship in Canadian Literature and that it is very deserving of the Klinck Prize. Congratulations, Sheetala!


May 10, 2022 | Graduate Studies
2022 McIntosh Prize Competition Winner
Melanie Byron, “‘Taking the words out of their mouths’: Disabling Rhetoric in Wilkie Collins’ Heart and Science”. Congratulations!

We would like to thank all of the speakers for their outstanding presentations, as well as the members of the adjudication committee.


April 23, 2022 | Sudbury.com
Award-winning Creative Writing and English Language and Literature alum publishes book of poetry "Claimings and Other Wild Things" 
Noelle Schmidt, BA'19, is a disabled, queer, non-binary poet. They graduated from Western University, having received the Alfred R. Poynt Award in Poetry, the Margeurite R. Dow Canadian Heritage Award, and the Western Gold Medal.


April 19, 2022 | Byrdie
Slow Fashion Will Shift Your Relationship with Clothes
Claudia Manley, a writing studies professor and author of Fashion Writing: A Primer, forthcoming from Routledge in 2022, explains how slow fashion will shift your relationship with clothes.


April 19, 2022 | London Free Press
Inside the mind of an elite cold case detective
Writing Studies professor and former London police detective Michael Arntfield outlines the history of cold case squads in Canada and the US, and lays out the steps to understanding and solving crime in his new book, How to Solve a Cold Case.


April 12, 2022 | Western News
Western researchers first to map effects of England’s ‘little ice age’
Dr. Madeline Bassnett and the Weather Extremes database team pulled the details of the Little Ice Age into the present by scouring historical narratives and documenting the extreme weather and meteorological events as part of Bassnett’s SSHRC-funded project, Weather Networks: Climate Change and Community in England’s Little Ice Age.


April 5, 2022 | Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Professor Tom Cull honoured with the 2022 Faculty of Arts & Humanities Teaching Excellence Award (part-time)
Professor Cull teaches courses in English and Writing Studies, including the first year Writer’s Studio and seminar courses in Creative Writing, and he is perhaps best known for his course on Nature Writing (where students “write about nature, in nature.”) He is an activist, urban environmentalist, and the former Poet Laureate, City of London – a background that he enthusiastically shares with his students as he helps them navigate the currents of language that exist within and beyond our community. Tom’s success as a teacher and mentor is also apparent in the successes of his students, who have gone on to find success in publishing as well as in the everyday joy of exact, evocative expression.


April 4, 2022 | CBC London
Tom Cull, an assistant professor of Writing Studies, leads the clean-up group for the Antler River Rally during the Annual Thames River Clean Up
Antler River Rally is a volunteer group that organizes monthly clean-ups of the Deshkan Ziibi/Thames River within the city of London. Tom started this in 2011 to organize London citizens for river cleanups and began incorporating the events with Western's Orientation Week in 2018.


March 15, 2022 | Globe and Mail
Non-traditional jobs attract more women
Melanie Chambers, travel journalist, editor and instructor for some of our popular Writing Studies courses (WORD TRAVELS, FOOD WRITING and FROM HEADLINE TO DEADLINE) explores the advancement of women in the trades.


February 25, 2022 | Western Alumni
Carol Off, BA’81 (English Language and Literature), LLD’17, gives her last broadcast for CBC As It Happens
In a mere 90 minutes each weekday, the host of CBC Radio One’s As It Happens switches gears repeatedly and seamlessly. Every guest – be it a world leader, an innovative researcher or an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances – is provided space for their story to resonate with listeners.


January 16, 2022 | English Studies
In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Donald Chapin
We mourn the loss of our colleague Don Chapin, who taught medieval literature for many years and served as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. Our condolences to his family, students, and friends.


November 26, 2021 | King's University College
Dr. Nigel Joseph, recipient of the 2021 Award for Teaching Excellence at King's University College
Warmest congratulations to Dr. Nigel Joseph. We are delighted for him and glad that he teaches here in our department at Western as well!

November 25, 2021 | Western News
David Huebert, English PhD '19, publishes short story collection
When David Huebert came to Western, he immersed himself in learning more about life in ‘Chemical Valley,’ the name attached to the towering oil refineries surrounding the City of Sarnia. It is also the title of his second short story collection.

November 23, 2021 | The Conversation
Professors Green-Barteet and MacLean examine how Hulu’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ casts Canada as a racial utopia Their research examines representations of race in speculative fiction and of Canada in U.S. literature, leading them to notice how Hulu’s series represents race and national difference.

October 15, 2021 | Graduate Studies
Alexandra Lukawski, PhD candidate in English, recalls experience at Newberry Library Center Alexandra spent a day at the Newberry Library in Chicago while attending the "Word and Image in Print and Digital Archives” workshop. She reported that the participants were from all different disciplines and universities, and it was enriching to be able to learn in a new environment, with people who had fresh ideas and perspectives. The course instructors were very informative, and the group discussions allowed the material to become tangible and relate to each of our own personal research goals. Being able to work with the unique and rare books the library houses in their beautiful building was an added bonus!

October 7, 2021 | Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Ivan Coyote to remain Alice Munro Chair in Creativity until July 2023
"I'm sincerely honoured and thrilled to have one more year to continue to craft and cement my vision for the Alice Munro Chair in Creativity: to bring my passion and love for writing and all forms of storytelling to our campus, and to use the power of story, and the human connections it fosters and feeds, to build a conduit between students and classrooms and a lifelong reverence and respect for all that creativity brings into our lives." -- Ivan Coyote

September 16, 2021 | Western News
Toswell spies pocket-sized antiphoner from the 1400s
Library archivists at Western recently unboxed a one-of-a-kind volume of sacred vocal music first used in churches in southern Spain in 1600 during the bishopric of Don Francisco de Reynoso, bishop of Cordova. Unboxed at the same time was a pocket-sized chant book from the 1400s - a chance find by medieval scholar and English professor Jane Toswell, who spotted it as part of an online estate auction.


September 15, 2021 | Global Undergraduate Awards
Akshi Chadha, BA’21 Regional Award Winner
Congratulations to Akshi Chadha, Honours Specialization in Creative Writing and English Language and Literature graduate, for winning the 2021 Global Undergraduate Award in Literature for the Canada & USA region for a revised version of her essay originally submitted to English 3342G - Personhood in the Eighteenth Century: Black Lives.


September 11, 2021 | English Studies
In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Catherine Ross
We are saddened to hear of the passing of Professor Emeritus Catherine Ross, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a member of our department and Dean of FIMS from 2002-2007Her research focused on the experience of readers, on reference services, and on Canadian literature, particularly the works of Alice Munro. In addition to her scholarly publications, she was the author of four children’s books.


September 2, 2021 | Western News
Award-winning author Zalika Reid-Benta 2021-22 Writer-in-Residence
As Western's Writer-in-Residence, Zalika wants to do what she can to support writers in feeling confident in themselves as writers, and encourage conversations about what’s on and off the page.


August 30, 2021 | Social Science and Humanities Research Council
Professors MacLean and McMurran awarded SSHRC Explore Grant
Alyssa MacLean and Mary Helen McMurran have been awarded a SSHRC Explore Grant for their project, Tracing Black Lives in Print, 1780-1880. Their project fund research in Western Libraries’ special collections to discover, catalog, and research Black voices and agency in print culture during the abolitionist era. Collections including the foundational John Davis Barnett Collection and the archives of Fred Landon relating to Black refugees in Southwestern Ontario contain scores of works by Black writers and works in traditionally devalued ephemeral forms such as newspapers and letters most frequently used by Black communities. With the aid of research assistants, they will aim to make these works more accessible for scholars, students and to share the collections with the public.


August 26, 2021 | Western News
Short-fiction collection penned at Western
Former Student Writer-in-Residence Sydney Warner Brooman, BA'18 weaves tales of a small town, heartsick humans and carnivorous beavers in their soon-to-be-released debut short fiction collection, The Pump.


August 17, 2021 | Indie88
Camille Intson, BA’19 (English and Theatre) releases EP on streaming services
Toronto-based alternative-folk artist Camie premiered her intimate new EP, troubadour, on Indie88 which can also be found on streaming services.


August 14, 2021 | English Studies
In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus David Kaula
We are saddened to hear of the passing of Professor Emeritus David Kaula, a Shakespearean scholar, author and member of our department until he retired in 1988.


August 5, 2021 | English Studies
In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Archie Young
We are saddened to hear of the passing of Professor Emeritus Archie Young, a scholar of More and Erasmus and longtime member of our department. Condolences to his wife Mary and to all who knew and studied with him.

Archie Young spent his childhood in Saskatchewan and Alberta. At the age of 14 he moved with his family to Ontario where he completed his schooling, first at East York Collegiate, then at Victoria College in the University of Toronto. He graduated in 1959 and married Mary Lige in 1960. In 1961, before joining the U, of .T graduate programme in English, he taught for one year at the University of Guelph. In 1964 he joined the Department of English at York University's Glendon Campus where he remained until he received a Canada Council Research grant that allowed him to pursue work on his thesis at the British Museum in London. In the fall of 1968 he joined the English Department at Western University. While a member of the Department he published articles and reviews on Shakespeare (Airmont Press), St. Augustine (Harvard Theological Review) Thomas More, St. Germain and Desiderius Erasmus (Moreana). One of these, an article on the theory of conscience in More and Luther, was later reprinted in a collection of important articles on the renaissance and reformation. During his academic career he served on the Faculty Association, first as a member of its executive, then as its president; and in the community he served as a founder and first president of the South London Community Association. Upon retiring in 2002, his retirement years were spent reading, writing, and taking up the study of Chinese literature and culture.


July 21, 2021 | Western News
Professor Solga begins Teaching Fellowship
Innovations in Interdisciplinary Pedagogy, Within and Beyond Arts and Humanities.


June 29, 2021 | Western News
Creative writing meets science
With her diverse perspective and leadership skills, Neuroscience and Psychology student Ashley Li, hopes to connect creative writers from different faculties as this year’s Student Writer-in-Residence.

2020-21 NEWS & EVENTS

November 1, 2021 | Graduate Studies
2021 McIntosh Prize Competition Winner
Sheetala Bhat, "Hunters' Love against Hungry Listening: On Vigil and The Unnatural and Accidental Women." 

Adjudicators: Professors Manina Jones, MJ Kidnie, and Donna Pennee


June 9, 2021 | Graduate Studies
2021 Sara Marie Jones Memorial Scholarship in English Recipient
The Sara Marie Jones Scholarship selection committee is delighted to award this year’s prize to Adam Mohamed for his essay, “The Inverse Proportional Movement of Theoretical Texts on Aesthetics and their Alterities: From G.W.F. Hegel’s Lectures on Aesthetics to Jacques Derrida’s ‘This Strange Institution Called Literature’.” The essay juxtaposes rigorous and insightful accounts of Hegel’s aesthetic theory with Derrida’s logocentrism. Such precise articulation of these complex systems is alone a merit, but the argument goes much further by illuminating that the deconstructive exposure of logocentrism ultimately constrains aesthetic possibility, whereas Hegel’s strict dialectic enables an unbounded development of artistic and literary practice. The committee found this characterization of theory brave in conception, persuasive, and potentially generative of textual analyses. Conjoined with the essay’s agile rhetoric, it is an estimable marker of Adam’s intellectual and scholarly progress.

The Sara Marie Jones Memorial Scholarship in English is awarded annually to a PhD student in the first year of the doctoral program for an essay submitted to the competition and is adjudicated blindly by three members of the Department of English and Writing Studies. This scholarship honours the memory of Sara Marie Jones, who was a graduate student pursuing research in English at Western. It was made possible by generous donations from Sara's family and friends, and occurs through the good offices of Foundation Western. The Sara Marie Jones Scholarship is valued at $500.
The Graduate Studies Office would like to thank all students who submitted an essay for the competition, as well as the members of the adjudication committee, Drs Mary Helen McMurran, Donna Palmateer Pennee, and Kate Stanley, for their enthusiasm and dedication to our students, and for their work on this competition.

April 15, 2021 | Western News
Dr. Kim Solga 2021 Recipient of the Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching
This award recognizes Kim's contributions to teaching innovation and effectiveness, research on teaching, course curriculum development, mentoring of students, and educational leadership, among many other things!


March 29, 2021 | English Studies
In Memoriam: Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Michael Groden
A fine teacher and mentor, a dear and respected colleague, and a scholar of the highest order.


March 27, 2021 | English Studies
Mini Lecture with Joel Faflak
Professor Joel Faflak talks about first-year English classes at Western.


March 17, 2021 | Forbes
Former Fashion Writing student and Henning Founder Lauren Chan, BA’12, turns fast fashion on its head
Plus-size brand Henning released a new Spring collection a year after the pandemic was announced.


February 24, 2021 | Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Professor Jo Devereux 2021 recipient of Faculty of Arts & Humanities Teaching Excellence Award (Full-Time)
Professor Devereux is one of the most beloved and influential teachers in the Faculty who teaches across a range of subject areas and teaching formats. She also brings energy, experience, knowledge, and dedication to theatre production as a learning experience on and off campus, through the Fall Production course, Summer Shakespeare productions, inter-university Stratford Festival collaborative courses, and, of course, our Theatre Studies program more broadly, including the international learning course, Destination Theatre. In addition, she brings credentials as a serious scholar to our department as President of the Victorian Studies Association of Ontario, Reviews Editor for English Studies in Canada, and the author of numerous scholarly articles and two monographs.


February 22, 2021 | Western Smartphone Film Festival
2021 Winners
Congratulations to first-year Film 1022 student Laiba Saqlain (Arts & Humanities) whose experimental essay-film "Forget Me Not" won Second Place and Sophie Siew (FIMS) whose short film on the modeling industry "Poise" won the Audience Choice award at the 2021 Western Smartphone Film Festival! The film festival was presented as a free live-streamed event on February 11 and adjudicated by a guest panel of film studies professors and creative professionals.


February 21, 2021 | Canadian University Press
Congratulations to Hope Mahood
3rd year Major in English Language & Literature student wins 2021 JHM award for Excellence in Student Journalism.


January 18, 2021 | Western News
Ivan Coyote brings Active Voice to Western
Ivan Coyote, Western’s Alice Munro Chair in Creativity, launches a highly interactive senior-level class that is also a public performance series. The first public event is slated for Tuesday, January 26 at 7 pm and will feature Christine Fellows and John K. Samson.


January 14, 2021 | Western Strategic Support for SSHRC Success Program
Professor Richard Moll winner in SSHRB competition
For a project titled, "The Liber Armorum: The First Printed Book on English Heraldry".

Funded by Western Research, the WSS for SSHRC Success program offers two funding opportunities identified as the Seed and Open grants. These grants are targeted at all researchers who are pursuing SSHRC-related research. The intent of these grants is to offer critical, one-time funding to support an individual investigator’s research activities for the subsequent development of strong, competitive submissions to external, peer-reviewed research sponsors.


January 4, 2021 | Western News
Professor Emeritus Stan Dragland among notable Western researchers, scholars and alumni appointed to Orders of Canada and Ontario
The founder of Brick Books, is an award-winning novelist, literary critic, essayist, poetry editor, and community-builder who taught at Western for 29 years and now lives in Newfoundland. Manina Jones, Department Chair, recalled Dragland as an “inspiring colleague, teacher, mentor and proponent of local cultural roots and creative networks.”


December 30, 2020 | The Governor General of Canada
Professor Emeritus Stan Dragland appointed to the Order of Canada
For his contributions to Canadian literature as a writer, publisher and editor, and for his distinguished career as an English professor.


December 22, 2020 | Department of English and Writing Studies
Year in Review
It's hard to articulate just how grateful we are for the perseverance, patience and good will of staff, faculty, and students this term, under the most challenging and sometimes tragic circumstances. Before we start looking ahead to 2021, we hope you'll take some time over the break to recognize the achievement of seeing 2020 through to its denouement - -- and to rest and replenish. Let there be chocolate and pleasure reading and walks and, yes, perhaps even more zoom calls to connect with friends and families!


December 16, 2020 | The Globe and Mail
Five Canadian books we can’t wait to read in 2021
Ivan Coyote's forthcoming book Care Of is one of the Globe & Mail's 5 Canadian Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2021.


November 19, 2020 | Undergraduate Studies
Scholarship & Award Recipients
While we know we can’t replicate the joy of an in-person celebration, we’re thrilled to recognize the academic achievements of our outstanding undergraduate students by highlighting them in this video. Congratulations to all of our scholarship and award winners!


November 13, 2020 | The Queen's Journal
Alicia Elliott balances personal reflection and Indigenous realities in debut book, 'A Mind Spread Out on the Ground'
Elliott does not hold back in her analysis of colonialism and Eurocentrism. Her writing is raw and hurts to read, likely because it is so unapologetically truthful. This collection has been called “hard, vital medicine” by Warren Cariou, “a stunning, vital triumph of writing” by David Chariandy, and “fire with warmth, light, rage, and endless transformation” by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.


November 4, 2020 | Royal City Literary Arts Society
English professor Madeline Bassnett's Under the Gamma Camera longlisted for the Fred Cogswell Prize for Poetry
This award was created by the Royal City Literary Arts Society (RCLAS) in honor of Fred Cogswell (1917-2004) who was a prolific poet, editor, professor, life member of the League of Canadian Poets, and an Officer of the Order of Canada.


November 4, 2020 | CBC Books
Ivan Coyote publishing collection of pandemic correspondence in 2021
Award-winning author Ivan Coyote's collection Care Of is set to be published June 8, 2021. It was acquired as part of a two-book deal with McClelland & Stewart. Care Of is a collection of moving correspondence the author wrote in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown. It features letters and the responses Coyote sent in the months since lockdown.


November 2, 2020 | OCUFA
OCUFA Teaching Awards Video
OCUFA celebrates this year’s Teaching and Academic Librarianship Award recipients, including Joel Faflak, in this new video.


October 22, 2020 | CBC Books
Writer-in-Residence Alicia Elliott wins 2020 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award
Alicia Elliott has won the 2020 Evergreen Award for her essay collection A Mind Spread Out on the Ground. The Evergreen Award is part of the annual Ontario-wide Forest of Reading program, inviting people to read and vote on a selection of Canadian fiction and nonfiction titles curated by librarians.


October 19, 2020 | Western News
Business, English grad takes the road less travelled
Ellie Sak may well be the first business student in Ivey Business School history to clinch an internship by reciting Robert Frost poems. And if the HBA and English and Creative Writing grad took the road less travelled to her combined undergraduate degrees, it has made all the difference in helping her land a career she loves.


October 15, 2020 | Western News
‘Be fearless and be yourself’: Faflak wins OCUFA teaching award
Congratulations to Professor Joel Faflak who was recently named a winner of the OCUFA teaching award. This prestigious, province-wide award recognizes excellence and innovation in teaching and pedagogy.

“I gradually realized that who I was as a human being was, above all, probably the most important thing I was bringing into the classroom and that I shouldn’t be scared to bring that in. I think that makes what you’re doing in the classroom more real and more relevant for the students – and it gives them the license and the agency in turn to be who they are, and to discover who they are.”


October 2, 2020 | Theatre Studies
Solga talks about online teaching with Shakespeare Institute
In this conversation with Christie Carson, Professor Kim Solga describes how she has moved in the past six years to a hybrid form of teaching that combines live and online participants and how she uses several different digital platforms to bring students together both in the real world and virtually, to discuss the role of theatre in society.


September 21, 2020 | Western News
Western ranks first in global undergraduate competition
Congratulations to Elliott Cooper (English 2301E) and Selvi Sert (English 2071F) who were deemed Highly Commended Entrants at the 2020 Global Undergraduate Awards for papers they wrote in their undergraduate classes in Fall/Winter 2019.


September 14, 2020 | Western News
Writer-in-residence coaches others to find their voices
Western’s 2020-21 writer-in-residence is Alicia Elliott, a Mohawk writer living in Brantford, Ontario. Her bestselling first book, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, was recognized as one of the best books of 2019 by CBC Books, Globe & Mail and Quill and Quire. Here, Elliott discusses her craft and her hopes for her residency in a question-and-answer session with 2020-21 student writer-in-residence, Courtney Ward-Zbeetnoff.


September 8, 2020 | Theatre Studies
Theatre Studies 2202F
Professor Kim Solga, Director of our Theatre Studies program, demonstrates how she will use University College’s WALS classroom to teach a hybrid online/in-person course.


September 8, 2020 | Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Inc.
Claudia Manley, 2020 Money for Women Finalist
Grants from Money for Women give encouragement and recognition to women writers and visual artists whose feminist-centered work is often undervalued by other funding sources.


September 2, 2020 | The East
A powerful new track from our Alice Munro Chair in Creativity Ivan Coyote and T. Thomason
What happens when you put two queer icons of the Canadian music scene together in one room? You get “Birdsong Pt. II,” an absolute work of art for the ears and hearts of listeners big and small, young and old, and most importantly, the young queer folk who need role models now more than ever.


August 19, 2020 | London Free Press
Et tu, COVID?: Western's Summer Shakespeare fetes 40 years with virtual Pandemic Julius Caesar
Western University’s Department of English and Writing Studies celebrates 40 years of Summer Shakespeare with a virtual performance of the classic adapted by London actor-director Jeff Culbert: Pandemic Julius Caesar.


August 13, 2020 | Western News
Pandemic inspires Summer Shakespeare
COVID-19 has transformed the annual theatre performance into an online event, a Zoom-recorded production of Pandemic Julius Caesar that will be posted to the English and Writing Studies YouTube channel from Aug. 20 to 31.


August 7, 2020 | CBC Arts
Alice Munro Chair in Creativity Ivan Coyote offers some 'armour' for trans kids
Watch the prolific Coyote's moving performance from CBC's virtual special Queer Pride Inside. 5:11


August 4, 2020 | Western News
Experiential Learning grants brew innovative courses
Professor Kim Solga’s class is among four active-learning projects to be developed, with and for students, in the début year of the Experiential Learning Innovation Scholars Program. Students in Solga’s class will immerse themselves in the theatre of life in a course integrating political science, medicine and policing as performance art.

2019-20 NEWS & EVENTS

November 1, 2021 | Graduate Studies
2020 McIntosh Prize Competition Winner
Andrew Sargent, "Self-Citation in Percy Shelley's St. Irvyne and the Erasure of the Shelley Corpus." 

Adjudicators: Professors Manina Jones, Chris Keep, and Jan Plug


June 26, 2020 | Writing Studies
2020 Marie Smibert Writing Studies Student Achievement Prizes
The Marie Smibert Writing Studies Student Achievement Prizes honour the achievements of students in Writing Studies courses. Congratulations to the following winners:
Marie Smibert Writing Scholarship (Introductory Expository Writing 2019-20 valued at $20000) - Laura Matias
Marie Smibert Writing Prize (Highest Mark Writing 2202F/G 2019-20 valued at $700) - Jillian Cavuoti
Category 3 (Non-Fiction Manuscripts) - Akshi Chadha


June 25, 2020 | English Graduate Studies
2020 Sara Marie Jones Memorial Scholarship Recipient
Ileana Gonzalez Zavala, “Repetition, Posthumousness and Rewriting in Shelley’s Alastor and Mary Shelley’s Mathilda”.

The essay offers a fascinating exploration of echoes in and between Alastor and
Mathilda that ranges across genre, structural repetition, and publication history. Ileana presents a nuanced exploration of these unsettling and ambiguous repetitions and maintains a mature and rigorous methodology throughout; the incestuous doublings and substitutions of Mathilda are treated with particular subtlety. The judges would also like to commend the other entrants for some interesting and impressive papers that made picking a winner a slightly difficult pleasure.

The Graduate Studies Office would like to thank all students who submitted an essay for the competition, as well as the members of the adjudication committee, Drs Jo Devereux, James Purkis, and Aaron Schneider, for their enthusiasm and dedication to our students, and for their work on this competition.


May 19, 2020 | The Conversation
Cooking in the coronavirus crisis
Many of us are turning to cooking during lockdown as a way to connect to others and feed our bellies and soul. English Studies professor Madeline Bassnett delves into English recipe books from centuries ago and learns how cooking during the 16th and 17th centuries served similar social purposes in difficult times.


May 14, 2020 | Western News
Course announces that ‘the plague’s the thing
Theatre Studies 3206G - Shakespeare in Performance examines Shakepearean works through the lens of the insidious and invisible disease that shaped the playwright’s life.


May 12, 2020 | Western News
Read. Watch. Listen. with Manina Jones
Seek solace by immersing yourself in other-worlds when English & Writing Studies professor Manina Jones takes a turn on Read. Watch. Listen.


May 4, 2020 | Western News
Pandemic poetry books lighten load, raise funds
Writing Studies professor Aaron Schneider helps raise money for social agencies, independent booksellers and artists through poetry.


April 29, 2020 | Western News
Students join global effort to solve PPE shortage
Western students Betty Wang, English Literature/Ivey HBA, and Amy Wang, Computer Science/Ivey HBA join global effort to solve PPE shortage.


April 27, 2020 | Western News
Toy giant lends hand – and Banz – in COVID-19 fight
Tammy Smitham, BA’97 (Sociology and English), joined Spin Master, a leading children’s entertainment company, in 2018 as Vice President, Communications & Corporate Social Responsibility. She leads global external and internal communications, public relations, organic social media brand channels, influencer relations and corporate social responsibility.


April 26, 2020 | Community NewsMedia Association
Shalu Mehta, New Journalist of the Year
Congratulations to English Language and Literature Major and Certificate in Theatre Arts alumna Shalu Mehta for winning the Ma Murray New Journalist of the Year award! The Ma Murray Awards are an opportunity to recognize the achievements of the association’s 95 member newspapers in British Columbia and Yukon.


April 13, 2020 | Theatre Studies
Performance Beyond Theatres - Performance Action Archive
As part of their work with City Studio London this past semester, and in partnership with Leora Swartzman and her students in Psychology 3895E (Psychology in the Community), students in Kim Solga’s Theatre Studies 2202G (Performance Beyond Theatres) created four audio-based performance actions to support education and inclusivity around four key topics: Sanism, Ableism, Racism, and Xenophobia. They can be downloaded and experienced at anytime, by anyone.


April 9, 2020 | CBC Literary Prizes
The Jungle by Richard Joseph
Congratulations to Creative Writing and English Language and Literature alumnus Richard Joseph for making the CBC Short Story Prize longlist!


April 8, 2020 | Twitter | CBC
Actor Patrick Stewart gives Shakespearean shout out to Paul Werstine
Patrick Stewart has been reading a Shakespeare sonnet per day throughout the Covid-19 crisis. Here he reads one of the most famous sonnets and also acknowledges the editors of the Folger edition he is using, including our own Paul Werstine!


March 30, 2020 | Western News
Food provides outlets for students coping
Students in Melanie Chambers’ now-online Food Writing course (Writing 2222G) dissect the meaning of and our relationship with food. In the first class, they discussed how food goes beyond sustenance and nutrition; food is life and pleasure, ritual and connection.


March 19, 2020 | Undergraduate Studies 
Message from Emma Donoghue
Students from English 2501E - Canadian Literature Survey were studying Emma Donoghue's Room as classes and the Grand's production were cancelled. The novel/play/film's theme of confinement was not lost on any of them. The divine Ms. Donoghue generously recorded a message of support for all our students.


March 12, 2020 | CBC
Three-minute thesis
Western University students Trent Gordon, Sheetala Bhat and Li Li are gearing up to deliver their three-minute thesis tonight. The students join London Morning to share even more condensed versions of their work.


March 9, 2020 | Faculty Research
English and Theatre Studies professor M.J. Kidnie gave the George Kiddell Memorial Lecture at the Fisher Rare Book Library in Toronto last week. It was an hour-long talk called, "'Some dozen or sixteen lines': In the Playhouse with Hamlet".


March 2, 2020 | Western News
Dr. Zane Cohen among Order of Ontario honourees
Hearty congratulations to Dr. Zane Cohen, who has been named to the Order of Ontario. Dr. Cohen, along with Mr. B. Franklin Shostack, continues to make the Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing available each year, in memory of the late Lillian Kroll. The Lillian Kroll Prize award was first presented in 1990.


March 1, 2020 | Forest City Open Mic for Poetry
Former poetry students share their poetry
Congratulations to Sueda Cam, Akshi Chadha, and Caitlyn Dubé who will be featured at the Forest City Open Mic for Poetry on March 10th, 7pm at Mykonos Restaurant in London. Come and be inspired by fabulous young talent as recommended by their poetry prof and unforgettable London poet Kathryn Mockler.


February 26, 2020 | CBC
Black writers and the Great Lakes region
Professor Alyssa MacLean discusses “Black Thought in the Great Lakes Region, 1790-1890", an exhibit she and her grad students organized at Western Libraries - Western University for Black History Month. Listen to the interview and check out the exhibit through April.


February 3, 2020 | Western News
Black history’s Great Lakes connections on display
Under the supervision of professor Alyssa MacLean, English and Writing Studies graduate students prepared an exhibit at The D.B. Weldon Library highlighting published writings by African-American and African-Canadian authors with a connection to the Great Lakes region on both sides of the border. Part of the Western Library Archives and Special Collections, the writings range from newspapers and pamphlets to autobiographies and biographical novels written from about 1790-1890. Students used them to highlight transnational conversations that took place during that time.


January 28, 2020 | Graduate Studies
Sheetala Bhat, winner of the International Federation for Theatre Research’s Helsinki Prize
Congratulations to Sheetala for her winning essay "In-Between Love: Performance of Intimate Love as Making of Counterpublics in Mandeep Raikhy's Queen-size"! "The prize is awarded on the basis of academic merit and strives to promote the exchange and networking of new scholars in developing regions, and to encourage research in the field of theatre in their countries." In addition to the honour, Sheetala’s expenses are paid for a trip to Galway, Ireland for the IFTR annual conference.


January 21, 2020 | CBC
Have feelings about climate change? Write about it!
Creative writing professor Kathryn Mockler is working with a team of editors to compile an ongoing publication on climate change-inspired poetry, prose and artwork for an anthology she hopes will build community and spark action. You can also listen to her interview on Afternoon Drive with Chris del Torre here


January 17, 2020 | CBC
Barnett collection subject of WEMS presentation
The Barnett collection, which was donated to Western more than 100 years ago by John Davis Barnett, was the subject of the Western Early Modern Society (WEMS) presentations by Scott Schofield (Huron) “Rare Editions and Unique Copies: Untold Stories from the Barnett Shakespeare Collection” and Ian Rae (King’s) “What Good Are All those Books: Barnett as City-builder and Public Intellectual”, and Blake Robertson, “Princes, Prayers, and Politics ‘too much presented’: the function of pencil markings in Fletcher and Massinger’s Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt.”


January 9, 2020 | Western News
Poetry anthology looks to inspire climate action
Edited by English Professor Kathryn Mockler, a new online poetry and prose anthology has dedicated itself to confronting the climate crisis. In mid-2020, Coach House Books plans to publish the works, collectively called Watch Your Head, with all proceeds donated to climate justice and Indigenous groups.


December 23, 2019 | CBC
'From syrup to source': a poem about winter light to mark the solstice
Pujita Verma, Mississauga's Youth Poet Laureate and student enrolled in "Renewing Your Poetic License: Introduction to Writing Poetry" (Writing 2220F), reads a poem about light, stars and the solstice on CBC's Metro Morning.


December 19, 2019 | Canadaland
Is The Agony Of Twitter Worth It For Young Journalists?
Student Writer-in-Residence Gabrielle Drolet talks with CANADALAND about how journalists engage with Twitter.


November 18, 2019 | Western News
Alumna puts sting back in classic Marvel character
Since graduating from Western a decade ago with a BA in English Language & Literature and Film Studies, [Sam] Maggs has written an ever-growing number of books, comics, and video games featuring some of the biggest names in pop culture including Captain Marvel, Spider-Man and Captain Kirk.


November 15, 2019 | Undergraduate Studies
Fall 2019 Scholarship Recipients
We were delighted to recognize the academic achievements of our outstanding students during our annual Undergraduate Awards Reception. Congratulations to all of our award winners!


November 13, 2019 | Western News
Writing 2219F Word Travels: Introduction to Travel Writing encourages student ‘travel’ across London
Professor Melanie Chambers wanted to create an assignment that encouraged students to break through ‘The Western Bubble’ and explore a wider London in hopes that the students would find some surprising discoveries after much research and exploration.


November 8, 2019 | Theatre Studies
Professor Kidnie highlights why students enroll in Theatre Studies 3900G - Destination Theatre
“I think the inherent value of an intercultural experience is that it develops personal qualities such as empathy and compassion. Going on a trip like [Destination Theatre] is demonstrable evidence that you’re someone who is willing to engage with other people, other communities on their own terms - and not only that, but you’re a person who’s willing to take a bit of a risk to do it.”


November 11, 2019 | Western News
English alumna’s memoir explores race, city and self
Eternity Martis, BA’14 (English Language and Literature/Women’s Studies), will release her debut memoir, ‘They Said This Would Be Fun,’ next spring. The book that captures her difficulty of navigating white spaces as a woman of colour.


October 28, 2019 | Western News
Western leads celebration of Whitman legacy
English professor Josh Schuster will help celebrate American poet Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday, as part of the annual Words: London’s Literary and Creative Arts Festival, taking place Nov. 1-3 at Museum London. Schuster is delivering a public lecture, Legacies of Walt Whitman’s Summer on Nov 2.


October 25, 2019 | Graduate Studies
Discovery of Witches
With assistance from Western's librarians and archivists, Caroline Diezyn, PhD Candidate, has curated an exhibit on books from Western's archives about witchcraft. Stop in at Weldon Library to see the exhibit to get into the spooky spirit!


October 21, 2019 | Western News
Shakespeare course fuelled fire for Executive Director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival
When Anita Gaffney, BA’90 (English Language and Literature), MBA’02 was enrolled in an undergraduate Shakespeare course in which she didn't get the grades she aspired to -- it became an obsession with her to work hard and face the challenges of the Shakespeare texts, providing a formative experience for her in her journey towards her current position.


September 30, 2019 | Western News
Journey into the 'Dark'
Take a journey into the not-so-distant past and future, along with a ‘Dark’ present that wrestles with both, when English and Writing Studies professor Chris Keep takes his turn on Read. Watch. Listen.


August 21, 2019 | Western News
Western rediscovers, revives long-lost abolitionist newspaper
English professor Alyssa MacLean, a specialist in countercultural political movements of the 19th Century, said the paper’s preservation and rediscovery is remarkable. More coverage >>


August 19, 2019 | Western News
University’s role at heart of new course
Starting January 2020, English and Writing Studies Professor Jane Toswell will teach This University, a new online/in-class course intended to be an academic look at what universities are – and are not – against the backdrop of Western.


July 30, 2019 | Western News
Poetry, journalism mix for Student Writer-in-Residence
Gabrielle Drolet, a fourth-year English and Writing Studies student, is Western’s 2019-2020 Student Writer-in-Residence.


July 29, 2019 | CBC
Camille Intson BA'19, wins Best in Fringe
Intson - recent grad, former Student Writer-in-Residence, and playwright, director and producer of WE ALL GOT LOST - wins Best in Fringe, the award for the most attended show at the festival. The show walked away with three awards in total, including Best New Play and Best in Venue.


July 23, 2019 | CBC
English student finds sense of belonging
Kriti Mehra, an LGBTQ+ student who moved from Mumbai to London to study in Western English and Writing Studies says that finding their own community was different in ‘a nice way’ when they came to Western. They were happy to find people who they could talk to who could relate to their experiences.


July 12, 2019 | Keats-Shelley Association of America
The Cenci 2019
To mark the bicentenary of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s drama, The Cenci, the Keats-Shelley Association of America interviewed Professors Monika Lee and Jo Devereux. This production will be staged by students in our popular undergraduate course English 2041F (Fall Theatre Production) from December 4-7, 2019.


July 12, 2019 | English Graduate Studies
Sara Marie Jones Memorial Scholarship
Congratulations to Melanie Byron, winner of the Sara Marie Jones Memorial Scholarship for her essay "'Now that’s medicine’: Disability and Healing in The Marrow Thieves". The committee received submissions from five students, and awarded the prize to this essay for “its strong, original argument, expressive quality, and argumentative clarity.” The committee read the submitted essays without knowledge of their authorship.

The Graduate Studies Office would like to thank the members of the adjudication committee, Drs MJ Kidnie, Jamie Johnston, and Kim Solga, for their enthusiasm and dedication to our students, and for their work on this competition.

2018-19 NEWS & EVENTS

June 13, 2019 | Western News
Book explores Wilder in ‘Little House’ – and beyond
Arts and Humanities professor Miranda Green-Barteet has co-edited the upcoming ‘Reconsidering Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little House and Beyond,’ published by University Press Mississippi.


June 7, 2019 | Writing Studies
Marie Smibert Writing Program Achievement Prize Winners
Category 1: Jack Convery - Winner
Category 1: Brandon Foran - Honourable Mention
Category 1: Katarina Kranjc - Honourable Mention
Category 2: Jain Bhawani - Winner
Category 3: Erica McKeen - Winner
Category 4: Danielle LaCouvee - Honourable Mention


June 7, 2019 | Writing Studies
Marie Smibert Writing Prize in Writing 2202F/G Winner
Mohammed Sarikahya


June 7, 2019 | Writing Studies
Marie Smibert Writing Scholarship in an Introductory Expository Writing Course Winner
Jia Yi Guo


June 4, 2019 | Western News
Professor explores poetry’s power in tenuous times
English and Writing Studies professor Madeline Bassnett sees poetry as a way to see through tough issues. Her new book, 'Under the Gamma Camera,' offers a frank portrait of her journey through breast cancer, and a larger picture of our internal struggles with external realities.


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May 19, 2019 | CBC
Professor John Leonard talks about Game of Thrones and predicts how the show will end
London Morning host Rebecca Zandbergen sat down with John Leonard, a professor from Western University's English department who teaches a course on the Game of Thrones (English 2096G) universe through George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire.


May 15, 2019 | Western News
Internationally acclaimed novelist Nino Ricci hosts the new 'Who Do You Think You Are? With Nino Ricci' podcast
Who Do You Think You Are? With Nino Ricci allows listeners to eavesdrop on conversations between Ricci, the inaugural holder of the Alice Munro Chair in Creativity in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, and Western professors who are “making a difference in their fields by challenging old assumptions or forging new models for how we make sense of the world.”


May 15, 2019 | Ladies We Love
Meet world traveller, cycler and instructor of Writing 2219F – World Travels: Introduction to Travel Writing
Melanie has been exploring the world for the last 20 years, documenting her cycling adventures on The Spoked Traveller and now she is embarking on her biggest challenge yet.


May 10, 2019 | English Graduate Studies
Erin Akerman and Thomas Sorensen awarded 2019 McIntosh Prize
Erin’s paper, “’They assumed, to the visionary eye, strange forms’: Resisting Prophecy in Anna Jameson’s Winter Studies and Summer Rambles with the Drummond Island Métis,” set recovered Indigenous voices from the archive in dialogue with a canonical settler author, showing that the widely-recognized rhetoric of sympathy in Jameson’s writing coexists with an eliminationist prophetic voice. The presentation combined close reading of Jameson’s work and archival work, and also made excellent use of visual material including readings of Jameson’s own drawings and of maps of the territories traversed by Drummond Island Métis in their migration to Penetanguishene. Erin engaged with an exceptionally wide range of critical disciplines to reframe settler texts using recovered Indigenous narratives.

Thomas’ paper “Between Emerson and his Severall Voices” undertook a close reading of passages from a hypercanonical US author, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Working from Emerson’s essays, Thomas teased out the ways he systematically enhances the dissonance between his own stance as author and the positions adopted by the various personae who appear as speakers in his writings. By so doing, Thomas’ work showed how close reading can unsettle widely-held views regarding Emerson’s philosophical positions, and reveal him as a far more unsettling, open-endedly dialectical thinker, than he is often taken to be.

Congratulations to both Erin and Thomas, and to all the speakers for your outstanding presentations!


May 3, 2019 | English Undergraduate Studies
Noelle Schmidt awarded the 2019 Alfred Poynt Award in Poetry
The judges selected “a demand that knows nothing” for its impressive structural rigor and emotional depth. The treatment of suicidal ideation is sensitive and nuanced, deftly avoiding familiar language or melodrama. This poem’s very form enacts the transformative thoughts of the speaker: vivid, painterly imagery immerses readers in the speaker’s harrowing memory just as accelerating patterns of repetition move readers towards the glimmer of light sparked by the artistic act itself. This poem’s gorgeous marriage of image, musicality, and structure achieves a deeply resonant final effect.

Honorable Mention was also awarded to Camille Intson.


May 2, 2019 | English Undergraduate Studies
Avie Bennett Prize in Canadian Literature Winner
The 2019 Avie Bennett Prize in Canadian Literature has been awarded to Meher Hakim for her paper “The Japanese-Canadian Experience: Dehumanization, Rape, and Blame in Joy Kowaga’s Obasan.” The paper offers an insightful analysis of the ways that Kogawa's novel deploys metaphors and imagery of animality to depict the dehumanization of Japanese Canadians during the period of internment in the WWII era. Through a combination of thoughtful close readings and the deft incorporation of secondary scholarship, the essay offers a compelling analysis of the text. The adjudication committee would like to congratulate Meher, and to thank all the students who submitted their excellent and provocative work.


April 23, 2019 | English Undergraduate Studies
Undergraduate Essay Prize
Jiali (Betty) Wang awarded the 2019 Undergraduate Essay Prize. Betty's essay, "Equiano and his Fight for Smithian Market Ideals in The Interesting Narrative" shows how Olaudah Equiano, an eighteenth-century enslaved African who bought his freedom, absorbs Adam Smith's ideals of a capitalist system and, at the same time, exposes this system as flawed and self-defeating as long as it engages in the slave trade. The adjudicators found Wang's reading of Equiano and her use of Adam Smith's central tenets to be both original and astute. Her demonstration of the hinge between the larger economic system and Equiano's daily life events is nuanced and presented persuasively in clear and lively prose. Congratulations to Betty and thanks to all the students who submitted excellent essays!


April 18, 2019 | English Graduate Studies
Carl F. and Margaret E. Klinck Prize
The Committee on Graduate Studies has awarded the 2018-19 Klinck Prize to Erin Akerman for her thesis-in-progress, “Unsettling Sympathy: Representations of Indigenous Identity in the Great Lakes Region of Canada in Nineteenth-Century Literature.” Erin is supervised by Dr. Pauline Wakeham. The committee felt that Erin’s work will make an excellent contribution to scholarship in Canadian Literature and that it is very deserving of the Prize.


April 15, 2019 | Western News
Urquhart named 2019-20 Writer-in-Residence
“I love being in touch with young people; they keep you grounded and in focus in a way that cannot possibly happen in any other format.” Urquhart will be on campus, taking appointments, and looks forward to working in and with the literary community in London. There are “lots of surprises in store” for her residency.


April 4, 2019 | Film Studies
Josh Litman - From London to L.A.: A Filmmaker's Journey
Talk, Q&A and Screening of "Last Dance" (2017) with multiple award-winning Canadian-American writer and director, Josh Litman.

Josh graduated in 2016 from USC's School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, California, with an MFA in Film and Television Production. He also holds an Honors degree from Western in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Josh has written, directed, and produced a number of films (40+), plays, music videos, and two seasons (25 episodes) of a web-based TV series. He also has an active fan base on YouTube with over 50,000 subscribers and a view count in the millions. Most recently he was a screenwriter on the feature adaptation of James Franco's Actors Anonymous starring James Franco, Eric Roberts, Emma Rigby, Scott Haze, and Horatio Sanz.


April 4, 2019 | them.
What is camp? A guide to this year's Met Gala theme, "Camp: Notes on Fashion"
“There is no ‘camp’ without ‘queer,’” says Allan Pero, a critical theory professor at the University of Western Ontario currently at work on a book about camp. “It is a crucial, constitutive part of it.”


April 4, 2019 | Faculty Awards
Professor Kim Solga named a Graham and Gale Wright Distinguished Scholar for 2019
Awarded by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in recognition of Professor Solga's wide-ranging and enterprising initiatives in her field of research.


March 26, 2019 | Western News
Kim Solga is “kind of a weirdo” when it comes to her teaching
“There are lots of ways to make lectures more dynamic. But I’m a fan of turning the tables and asking the students to participate in the learning process,” said the English and Writing Studies professor.


March 26, 2019 | Writing Studies
Marie Smibert Writing Program Student Achievement Prizes 2018-2019
Have you written an outstanding essay or project in a Writing Studies course this year? If so, we encourage you – students in eligible Writing Studies courses 2018 – 2019 (May to April) – to submit entries and compete for the Marie Smibert Writing Program Student Achievement Prizes 2018 – 2019.

There are four Categories this year, and there is a first prize of $350.00, and up to two Honourable Mention prizes of $250.00 each, available in each Category. You can submit only one entry in a Category, but you can of course compete in more than one Category. Click on these links for complete information, including a list of eligible courses, and the required Entry Form. Contest is now closed.


March 19, 2019 | Office of the President
Professor Richard Moll, recipient of the 2019 Faculty Scholars Award
This award recognizes Richard's unique scholarly achievements in teaching and research and celebrates his outstanding contributions to the department, faculty, and university. Nominated by faculty deans and selected by the Faculty Selection committee chaired by the Provost, recipients of this award must have an international presence in their discipline and be considered all-round scholars.

Richard is an internationally respected scholar in his fields of expertise: literature in medieval England, the history and structure of the English language, Arthurian literature, medieval biography and historiography, medieval heraldry and heraldic culture, early print culture, and editing as a form of scholarship. His scholarly work includes Before Malory: Reading Arthur in Later Medieval England (U Toronto P, 2003), a critical edition of William Caxton’s The Booke of Ovyde Named Methamorphose (jointly published by Oxford’s Bodleian Library and the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto, 2013), A Heraldic Miscellany: Fifteenth-Century Treatises on Blazon and the Office of Arms in English and Scots (Liverpool University Press, 2018), as well as many articles and reviews. As Undergraduate Chair, he is serving his fourth year (an extension of his initial term), and we owe him a debt of gratitude for having seen the English program through the development of learning outcomes, the 2017-18 IQAP undergraduate program review, and a large-scale curriculum consultation and revision. He is also a highly regarded, passionately committed teacher who has contributed in significant ways to both undergraduate and graduate programs.


March 7, 2019 | English Undergraduate Studies
Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing Winner
Congratulations to Elizabeth Saks, 2019 winner of the Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing. Her paper, “Room for Rent” is a witty, satirical take on the Harpies of Homer’s Odyssey that reinvigorates the mythological material by resituating it in a contemporary context. Tackling the themes of desire, appetite, and social deviance, the story seamlessly blends the canonical with a careful attention to the grubbier details of student life to produce social commentary that is cleverly framed, carefully observed, and entirely satisfying.

Honourable Mentions were also awarded to Madeleine Ghesquiere for "The Stories We Tell" and Gabrielle Drolet for "Grass".


March 6, 2019 | English Undergraduate Studies
Marguerite R. Dow Canadian Heritage Award Winners
Congratulations to Gabrielle Drolet ("Little Malta") & Noelle Schmidt ("an inheritance"), winners of the 2019 Marguerite R. Dow Canadian Heritage Award. ‘Little Malta’ is a touching exploration of familial identity. The speaker recounts the stories ‘Nana’ tells of Malta - ‘the clotheslines hanging between bright houses’, fish cooking in the family restaurant, picking snails from rocks – and describes her own life in ‘Little Malta’, ‘a small community of men and women who fled an isolated country’ and who still attend Maltese Mass and eat pastizzis. When Nana came to Canada, she came with her three young children and without their father, the speaker’s grandfather. Gabrielle reorients this reflection on familial identity beautifully when the speaker hears that the absent grandfather is alive, now an isolated island himself unable to communicate or remember, in a hospital room in either Malta or Australia.

The poem "an inheritance" powerfully features a direct address to "you," who turns out to be a young World War II soldier from Hungary who does not believe in the war but finds that no one cares and he must fight to survive. The speaker of the poem encounters the living and dead victims of the Nazis and the lines accumulate the horrific reality that "you are eighteen years old and alone / and everything is afire." The end of the poem finds the speaker in Canada but it is as if the war is still ongoing, but this time the bodies are of Indigenous peoples whose children are stolen and killed. The poem is intense and unrelenting from start to finish. The final words of the poem remain vividly nightmarish with the phrase "but i know there are / two genocides in my blood."


March 5, 2019 | Graduate Studies
Jonathan Stillman successfully defends his doctoral thesis
His thesis, titled "'What cannot active government perform, New-moulding man?': Eighteenth-century British georgics, political economy, and the liberal state" was supervised by Dr Joel Faflak. External examiner was Dr Christopher Fanning from Queen's. Pictured here Dr Fanning, Dr Stillman, and Dr Faflak.


February 27, 2019 | English & Writing Studies
Maddie Storvold, BA '16, winner of CTV's, The Launch
Congratulations to Maddie Storvold on winning The Launch with her song “Don’t Say You Love Me” co-written by Bryan Adams!


January 24, 2019 | Graduate Studies
Lisa Templin, PhD Candidate, shares her experience at the 2019 Multidisciplinary Graduate Student Conference
Conferences and research trips are difficult to fund on a graduate student budget, but with the generous support of the Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies consortium, I was able to attend the Multidisciplinary Graduate Student Conference and do research in the Newberry’s special collections.

At the conference, I met and engaged with other graduate students from all over the world. The conference organizers were friendly and inviting, which made this conference a great opportunity for emerging scholars to present their research, ask questions, and bond over our mutual love of old books, libraries, and all things Renaissance.

Like any bibliophile, my favourite part of my experience at the Newberry was the books. The graduate conference gave us a taste of the Newberry’s immense holdings through their collection presentations. The best part, for me, was looking through the original quartos of the plays that I have been studying in my dissertation. Though my primary interest is in English Renaissance drama, the most interesting item that I found wasn’t a play at all, but a 1561 volume of Baldassare Castiglione’s The Courtier, translated into English by Thomas Hoby, that was owned and annotated by Gabriel Harvey in 1572 (VAULT Case Y 712 .C27495). Harvey’s manuscript notes all but take over the margins of the page as he summarizes the contents, makes note of passages for further study, and references other contemporary courtesy manuals. I spent hours reading Harvey’s comments on Castiglione’s work and thinking about the ways that people read and interact with texts. If my own treasured dog-eared and scribbled-over volumes are any indication, it doesn’t seem as though much has changed even if prevailing attitudes have, but my experience at the Newberry has only increased my growing fascination with early modern manuscript marginalia.


December 17, 2018 | Western News
Western News celebrates the year that was
Cherie Dimaline and Nino Ricci named 2019 Newsmakers of the Year.


December 15, 2018 | Western News
Program provides ‘right supports’ for success
Thanks to Western’s School Within A University (SWAU) program, Jason Paiero relishes famed English professor David Bentley’s classes, enjoys writing for the student newspaper and serves on the Arts & Humanities Students’ Council.


December 3, 2018 | Horror Studies
Spineless
Edited by English PhD candidate, Thomas Stuart, and recent PhD graduate, Riley McDonald and includes an essay from Cameron Riddell, English PhD Candidate. Special thanks to Nahmi Lee, English PhD Candidate for her assistance.

Although it seems to promise an immaterial, unmediated, almost supernatural collapse of space at the user’s convenience, the cloud is not a solely spectral space. This introduction examines the cloud as a material object, a network of physical networks. It argues that inherent in the cloud’s nature as an internetwork is an excess, an overwhelming capacity to connect, reorganize and integrate. The physical nature and user experience of the Internet presents an uncontrolled, networked mediation of our personal lives, our history, our physical media and our orientation to the increasingly digital world. Examining popular digital horror, such as Slender Man, The Dionaea House (2006) and Kris Straub’s Ichor Falls (2009), alongside the articles collected in this special issue, this introduction argues that digital horror anxiously rehearses the cloud’s voracious capacity to incorporate that which should be left alone.


November 29, 2018 | CBC Books
Dimaline's The Marrow Thieves wins CODE Burt Award for Indigenous young adult literature
The book received the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — text, the Kirkus Prize for young readers' literature and was defended on Canada Reads 2018 by Jully Black. The award was presented to Dimaline in front of over 200 students and teachers at Kitigan Zibi Kikinamadinan School in Quebec.


November 26, 2018 | London Public Library
One Book One London selection unveiled
'The Marrow Thieves' by Cherie Dimaline, 2018 Western Writer-in-Residence, was unveiled as the next book selected for the community reading intiative by the London Public Library.


November 23, 2018 | Alumni
English alumna among Most Powerful Women
The list, launched in 2003, is intended to shine a spotlight on the accomplishments of professional women across Canada, recognize talented leaders and inspire others to push the boundaries of what’s possible.


November 16, 2018 | English Undergraduate Studies
Fall 2018 scholarship recipients
The Department of English & Writing Studies offers over 30 undergraduate awards & scholarships annually. We were proud to recognize the academic achievements of our outstanding students during our annual Fall Awards Reception.


November 15, 2018 | Western News
Dimaline refuses to settle for soundbites
The 2018-19 Western Writer-In-Residence spoke to Western News reporter Adela Talbot about her new role and offers her insights.


November 14, 2018 | Research & Publications
Theory for Theatre Studies: Space by Kim Solga
Professor Solga's latest book provides a comprehensive introduction to the “spatial turn” in modern theatre and performance theory, exploring topics as diverse as embodied space, environmental performance politics, and urban performance studies. The book is written in accessible prose and features in-depth case studies of a range of performance works.


November 7, 2018 | The Gazette
Wordsfest: Nino Ricci and Jane Urquhart
The audience got to hear the speakers read excerpts from their own novels. Ricci read from his newest book, Sleep, followed by Urquhart reading from her newest book, The Night Stages, and the introduction of her novel The Stone Carvers.


November 5, 2018 | Queen's University
Patrick Deane to serve as 21st Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University
Queen’s University introduced its next Principal and Vice-Chancellor today at a special announcement event in Stauffer Library. Patrick Deane will become the 21st Principal and Vice-Chancellor on July 1, 2019, succeeding Principal Daniel Woolf.


November 3, 2018 | PressReader.com
Wordsfest 2018: A meeting of the minds
Nino Ricci, the inaugural Alice Munro Chair in Creativity, has one word of advice for young writers: perseverance.


October 30, 2018 | Maclean's
Why more students need to enrol in Destination Theatre
We believe it’s very important for students to have more experience with cross-cultural matters in order to live and work in what is a global economy.


October 29, 2018 | Western News
Annual Words festival to capture our stories
Cherie Dimaline, the 2018-19 Writer-In-Residence at Western, will be at the opening reception of Words: London’s Literary and Creative Arts Festival, taking place Nov. 2-4 at Museum London.


October 25, 2018 | Western News
Bailey: Stories build belonging
Cameron Bailey, BA’87 and Artistic Director & Co-Head of TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival, spoke to graduates at Western's 312th Convocation, addressing anyone who has ever felt like an outsider, stressing the inclusivity that arises from sharing and listening to one another’s stories..


October 25, 2018 | English Graduate Studies
Jonathan Sachs presents: Charlotte Smith’s Longue Durée and the Uses of Genre
Charlotte Smith’s “Beachy Head” juxtaposes immediate lived experience—lyric time—with remnants of a more distant past, like ruins and fossils. In Romantic-era geology, fossils were increasingly used to date changes to the earth’s surface and to produce a historical account of the earth’s development. But after asking “what time” fossil shells formed, Smith dismisses geological speculation as “Food for vague theories or vain dispute” (394). Taking up Smith’s challenge to geology and scientific inquiry, this paper shows how Smith exposes the difficulty of establishing relations of scale and scope in order to demonstrate the usefulness of lyric experience for thinking about the historical past. Ultimately, I ask what her insights and techniques might be able to tell us about problems and challenges of periodization in literary history.


October 24, 2018 | Western News
The ‘unstoppable’ power of Grayskull
Rob McCallum, (BA’04, Film Studies), produced The Power of Grayskull, among the films that will be screened at the third annual Forest City Film Festival (FCFF), taking place Oct. 25-28 at the London Public Library’s Wolf Performance Hall.


October 23, 2018 | The Gazette
Prof. David Bentley on the need for conversation
When I change an idea or an opinion I have made a transition: I have shed or modified part of who I was and replaced it wholly or partially with something new and different. Samuel Johnson again: “We see a little, and form an opinion; we see more, and change it.” Conversations that foster and even encourage such changes are — or should be — central to the life of a university, for students and professors alike.


October 18, 2018 | The Gazette
Fear factor: The link between anxiety and horror films
Steven Bruhm, Robert and Ruth Lumsden Professor of English explains that horror is a fundamentally conservative genre in that it usually ends by putting back in place the kind of values we might see eroding culturally.


October 17, 2018 | Western News
English alumni named Top 20 Under 40
Western University congratulates eight of its alumni for being named to London’s Top 20 Under 40, as identified by London Inc. magazine, for 2018. The honour is awarded to young leaders who make a difference in the community.


October 15, 2018 | CBC
Dimaline awarded the 2018 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic
Western's Writer-in Residence Cherie Dimaline's award-winning dystopian novel, The Marrow Thieves follows an Indigenous teen named Frenchie and his found family, as they dodge residential school recruiters in a climate change-ravaged future North America.


October 2, 2018 | Roads & Kingdoms
Made with egg and fire, served hot and neat
My guide and driver both sit on the wooden kitchen floor with me in a circle. “Are you ready for this?” laughs Rinzin, my guide. My driver holds his hands to his mouth and snickers. It seems like they are all in on a private joke.


September 30, 2018 | FLARE
HowIMadeIt2018: Celebrating Canadian millennials with cool jobs
Lauren Chan, former Writing 2223F – Fashion Writing student and Canadian model and fashion brand founder, tells FLARE how she made it.


September 27, 2018 | English Graduate Studies
Students successfully defend PhD thesis
Congratulations to four students who successfully defended their doctoral dissertations in the Winter and Summer 2018 terms (in chronological order): Dr Riley McDonald, Dr Logan Rohde, Dr David Huebert, Dr Jeremy Colangelo.


September 26, 2018 | Alumni
Carol Off credits English degree for teaching her how to navigate the stories she tells
I understand things because of what I learned from literature. It was the best grounding in what I do now – knowing the shape of a story, the rise and fall of action, what redeeming qualities are, learning to look for the humanity in everything. That’s what literature does; it seeks the humanity in everything. In every book, at the core of it, is the search for our humanity and the humanity of others.


September 26, 2018 | Chicago Review
#MeToo: A Poetry Collective featuring Kathryn Mockler
Women have always been speaking up, even publishing poems out loud, decades ago, rooted in anguished or unsure responses to predatory behaviour that involved some kind of unwanted sexual component, coercion, or assault on a female body trying to flee. Or, as it was once known: the right of a man to simply grab at a woman without consequence.


September 26, 2018 | Western News
Intson brings passion for arts to student writer role
Camille Intson, a fourth-year English and Theatre and Performance Studies student and multidisciplinary artist and writer, is the 2018-19 Student-Writer-in-Residence at Western.


September 25, 2018 | Global Undergraduate Awards
English MA student named Regional Winner
Congratulations to Wyatt Merkley, English & Writing Studies MA student, who was recently named as a Regional Winner for US & Canada at the Global Undergraduate Awards!


September 25, 2018 | Public Lecture
Emma Frankland - award-winning performance and theatre artist
In London, England Emma has been a core member of Shakespeare’s Globe’s ‘Read Not Dead’ project, and her work on the ‘None of Us is Yet a Robot’ project explores gender, trans identity and the politics of transition. Her success and imagination as a performer, as well as her work exploring the politics, representation, and experience of trans identity and transition, offer much of interest for our students and ourselves.


September 23, 2018 | The Word on the Street
Toronto Book & Magazine Festival
Kathryn Mockler, Author and Creative Writing Lecturer at Western joins Jessica Johnson, Executive Editor and Creative Director of The Walrus on a panel called Short Fiction Today. Kathryn is the author of four books of poetry and six short films. She is the Canada Editor of Joyland: a hub for short fiction and the Publisher of The Rusty Toque.


September 20, 2018 | The Gazette
Creative Writers Speakers Series allows all students the chance to explore and pursue creative writing
At the first Creative Writers Speakers Series of the semester, award-winning poet and family physician, Shane Neilson inspired students of all faculties and piqued their interest by sharing some ins and outs of the writing and publishing industries.


September 19, 2018 | Western News
Poet Laureate tames ‘Bad Animals’ in debut
English and Writing Studies professor Tom Cull’s first book, 'Bad Animals,' is an extension of themes the London Poet Laureate explored in a previous chapbook, 'What the Badger Said.'


September 15, 2018 | Canadian Cycling Magazine
Pedalling Revolution in Cuba
We were two women cycling alone through the southern tip of Cuba. From the amount of attention we were getting, we might as well have been dogs dancing on our hind legs.


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September 11, 2018 | CBC
Western's first Alice Munro Chair of Creativity
Acclaimed author, Nino Ricci tells London Morning about his new job as Western U's first Alice Munro Chair of Creativity.


September 9, 2018 | Western News
Ricci to explore creativity in every campus corner
Nino Ricci lends a brilliant ear for creativity to Western as the inaugural holder of the Alice Munro Chair in Creativity. Ricci, whose internationally acclaimed first novel, Lives of the Saints, spent 75 weeks on the Globe and Mail’s bestseller list and won the F.G. Bressani Prize, the Books in Canada First Novel Award and Governor General’s Award for Fiction, joins the Western community this term.


August 10, 2018 | Western News
Recent grad embraces new life in ‘Memoriam’
Sydney Brooman, Western’s 2017-18 Student Writer in Residence, writes, stars and produces Memoriam, a fictional podcast that takes the form of audio recordings made by 18-year-old obituary writer Elliot Keel, who is able to interact with the ghosts of those they write about.


August 3, 2018 | Western News
Perseverance turns mission ‘Impossible’
English professor Clarissa Suranyi is working on a companion novel to the recently published Impossible Saints titled Bear No Malice, which will be published in January 2019. Step “inside the purr machine” and get a window into her bookishness.


July 26, 2018 | Western News
Summer Shakespeare welcomes Milton to stage
This year’s Summer Shakespeare production is a provocative, world premiere modern-dress version of John Milton’s Samson Agonistes, a dramatic retelling of the hero’s captivity and final catastrophe which will also include a fascinating roundtable discussion with leading Milton scholars and Play Director.


July 4, 2018 | Western News
Remembering David McFadden, poet, former Writer-in-Residence
David McFadden, Canadian poet, winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize, fiction writer and travel writer who served as Western’s Writer-in-Residence in 1983, died earlier this month from complications associated with Alzheimer’s disease. He is pictured here in 2013.

2017-18 NEWS & EVENTS

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June 27, 2018 | CBC
Overlooked: Photography and the Smartphone
Even photo studios of the 19th century and early 20th century provided backdrops, clothes and props for customers to use. Parents have always chosen baby photos and school pictures that conform to their idealized view of how their children should appear. And who hasn't taken a glance in the mirror before getting a passport picture taken? We select the most flattering images of ourselves — that's why visual culture expert Thy Phu sees every photo portrait as a kind of selfie.


June 14, 2018 | Undergraduate Studies
2018 Graduating Award Winners
Congratulations Emma Croll-Baehre, Helen M.B. Allison Gold Medal for Honors English Lang & Lit; Bailey Baggio, Kristin Brady Memorial Prize; Joanna Shepherd Mohammed, UWO Gold Medal for HSP in Creative Writing and English Lang & Lit; and Madeleine Campbell, UWO Gold Medal for Honors Major in English Lang & Lit, and the UWO Gold Medal for Honors Major in Art History & Studio Art!


June 12, 2018 | Western News Bookmarks
Putting a region in the context of family history
Professor Emeritus Donald Hair, author of Souwesto Lives: John Hair and Alice Runnalls, places the lives of his parents at the centre of the narrative that explores the history and culture of Southwestern Ontario.


June 4, 2018 | English Undergraduate Studies
Alfred Poynt Award in Poetry Winner
Jonathan Pavey is the 2018 winner of the Alfred Poynt Award in Poetry for his entry, “Unbecoming” and Camille Intson received an Honourable Mention for her poem "Questions I Have for the Allegorical Plaster Models in Regeneration Hall in the National War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario”. Congratulations!


June 2, 2018 | CBC
How the city has inspired London's poet laureate
Tom Cull, London's poet laureate, has recently written Bad Animals, a book of poetry focused on the relationship between people, animals and nature. Listen to his interview on CBC London.


May 30, 2018 | English Undergraduate Studies
Avie Bennett Prize in Canadian Literature Winner
Congratulations to Roshana Ghaedi, 2018 winner of the Avie Bennett Prize in Canadian Literature. In her essay “Trauma, Photography, and Fragmentation in Timothy Findley’s The Wars”, written for English 2501E – Canadian Literature Survey, Rose elegantly explores the ways that Findley’s 1977 novel fragments narrative form and uses imagistic devices to represent its hero Robert Ross’ experience of trauma and alienation at the time of the First World War.


May 25, 2018 | Western News
Professor follows The Bard’s words in new directions
Professor James Purkis’ book, Shakespeare and Manuscript Drama: Canon, Collaboration and Text, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Shakespeare’s Globe Book Award, which seeks to celebrate new scholarship and help to extend readership of Shakespeare.


May 24, 2018 | Western News
Professor Thy Phu and The Family Camera Network explore the relationship between photography and the idea of family
Funded by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, The Family Camera Network is a collaboration with six institutions. In 2016, researchers began building a public archive of family photographs, collecting the stories of the photos and building an archive to be housed at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).


May 18, 2018 | English Graduate Studies
McIntosh Prize Winner
Congratulations to Lisa Templin, winner of the 2018 McIntosh Prize. Lisa’s talk, “‘Golden Distraction[s]': Marginal Allusions in Rachel Speght’s A Mouzell for Melastomus” offered a meticulous reading of misogynist marginalia in Rachel Speght’s intervention in the popular early modern debate about women. Speght’s own work was a response to Joseph Swetnam’s misogynist The Arraignment of Women. Lisa's talk made full use of her detailed and exemplary archival work, delving into manuscript and print history to investigate the intertextual discussions enshrined by the anonymous marginalia. With admirable lucidity, Lisa unpacked the knotty relationships between the Calvinist Speght, her unidentifiable attacker, and two of the attacker’s sources: the Jesuit writer Robert Southwell and a popular song recounting a maid’s longing for a husband. In showing how the anonymous interpolator draws on these disparate religious, cultural, and social references to cleverly undermine Speght’s carefully drawn virtue—key to the power of her authorial voice—Lisa not only showcased the depth of her research and knowledge, but also raised fascinating questions about the uses and influences of marginalia and the reading and writing practices of early modern men and women.


April 26, 2018 | English Undergraduate Studies
Undergraduate Essay Prize Winner
Congratulations to Gillian Nangreave, winner of the 2018 Undergraduate Essay Prize. Gillian's paper, “Polyphony, Structure, and Social Order in ‘The Miller’s Tale’,” looks at Geoffrey Chaucer’s Miller both as a character and a narrator to argue that he occupies a liminal space within the social hierarchy of late fourteenth century England, and that he tells a tale which seeks to expand that social middle ground, thus obscuring the rigid social divisions established by The Knight’s Tale. The prize adjudication committee noted the depth of the research in the paper and the persuasiveness of Gillian’s argument, particularly as it draws together several threads of current scholarship. Gillian will be returning to Western in the Fall, as she has already been accepted to Western’s Master’s program in English literature. Congratulations to Gillian, and to all of those who submitted their excellent work for consideration.


April 23, 2018 | Department of English & Writing Studies
Professor Manina Jones appointed Chair of the Department, effective July 1, 2018
Manina comes to the position as an established scholar, an innovative teacher, and an effective and collegial administrator. Manina is author of The Art of Difference: “Documentary-Collage” and English Canadian Literature, co-author (with Priscilla L. Walton) of Detective Agency: Women Re-Writing the Hard-Boiled Tradition, and co-editor (with Marta Dvorak) of Carol Shields and the Extra-Ordinary, and has also published numerous articles in the fields of Canadian literature and detective fiction. She has also taught extensively in both areas, introducing a popular general interest course that works across genres and media of detective fiction, similarly pioneering community-based learning with an undergraduate course on Canadian Literature: Creativity and the Local, and supervising countless graduate students to successful completion of their degrees. As an administrator, Manina greatly expanded the role of Vice-Chair of the Department: in collaboration with the University Students' Council, she introduced the Student Writer-in-Residence position, unique among Canadian universities, and generally not only fostered a sense of community within the department but helped it look outward to its place in the university and beyond. For the past two years, she has been President of the largest organization of college and university teachers of English in Canada, ACCUTE. The Department is fortunate to have Manina serve as its next Chair. Welcome, congratulations, and thank you, Manina!


April 21, 2018 | Stratford Festival Reviews
A professor and a fourth-year honours student on Fun Home
Under the co-supervision of Professor Kim Solga, Rachel Windsor wrote her English 4999E - Undergraduate Thesis on Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home,” the graphic memoir on which Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori’s musical adaptation is based. They saw the Toronto premiere of the musical for Stratford Festival Reviews together.


April 19, 2018 | Western News
'Romantic' effort finding indie success for alumnae
Carly Stone, BA’11 (English and Writing Studies), recently premiered her first movie, The New Romantic, at SXSW, an annual conglomerate of film, interactive media and music festivals and conferences that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas.


April 19, 2018 | Theatre Studies
Extraordinary Performatives Start Here
Created by Thomas Sayers for his final project in Theatre Studies 2202G - Performance Beyond Theatres, this 15-minute long audio walk critically engages with the Be Extraordinary posters that make up our university landscape. Take this walk to become more aware of how these posters could shape your time at Western and find out what they're really saying (and doing!).

Start in front of the Western Road and Lambton Drive gates. Start the audio track and then follow the directions. Make sure to make a left turn after passing through the gates!


April 12, 2018 | Mountain Life
Hiking and Loss: How Trails Can Lead Us Out of Grief
Friends often recommended meditation, noticing my chronic restlessness. I thought it was a waste of time—too slow, not enough immediate gratification. The Japanese have a name for gardens where nothing grows: karesansui.


April 10, 2018 | English Undergraduate Studies
Marguerite R. Dow Canadian Heritage Award Winners
Congratulations to Emma Croll-Baehre and Trevor Zaple who tied for first place for the 2018 Marguerite R. Dow Canadian Heritage Award. Adjudicators Professors Madeline Bassnett and Joshua Schuster noted that Emma Croll-Baehre's untitled poem pulsates with language snapped up from disparate places including social media life and landscapes of Canadiana. The poem is "gull-mouthed" and dappled with "maple cheeks" but winks back "caught-ya / in double / speak." Croll-Baehre's crisp voice and fresh poetics sparkle here in an unforgettable poem. Her work insists on a restlessness of both place and displacement in words, desires, and Canadian feeling.

They also noted that Trevor Zaple’s “Sodom Road” is an unnerving ghost story that takes us into the underbelly of rural south-western Ontario. When the coffee-slinging Jered gets a letter from his uncle giving Jered ownership of his property, he leaps at the chance to escape his dead-end life in Toronto. But what Jered finds is a derelict pair of houses that lead him, not to the back-to-the-land idyll he hopes for, but to the sordid history of a once populous mill-town. Zaple skillfully juxtaposes the clash between Jered’s urban and romantic expectations and the rural decay and isolation he encounters. Equally skillfully, Zaple’s story erodes the line between past and present, placing us in a world where the two collide and nothing is quite what it seems. Giving us a very Canadian look at the rural/urban divide, “Sodom Road” is neither comforting nor tidy in its defamiliarization of our own SoWesto region.


March 22, 2018 | Western News
Cuba’s revolutionary heroine made of ‘honey and iron’
Inspired after reading One Day In December: Celia Sánchez and the Cuban Revolution, writer, cyclist, independent solo traveller and Writing Studies instructor, Melanie Chambers, visited Cuba to learn more about Fidel Castro's right-hand woman, Celia Sanchez.


March 22, 2018 | The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association
Kathleen Fraser awarded the CAUT Dedicated Service Award
In recognition of the valuable and important service to UWOFA, Kathleen was awarded the CAUT Dedicated Service Award which honors outstanding service to academic staff associations at the local or provincial level.


March 15, 2018 | Teaching & Research Excellence
Professors Joel Faflak and Jonathan Boulter awarded Western’s highest honours for teaching and scholarly achievements
Joel Faflak has been awarded the Edward G. Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching. The Pleva is Western’s highest award for teaching, and Joel joins a long list of distinguished teachers from our department to have won the award.

Jonathan Boulter has been awarded the Graham and Gale Wright Distinguished Scholar Award. The award recognizes Jonathan’s many scholarly contributions in the fields of 20th-century literature, theory, and cultural studies.


March 12, 2018 | English Undergraduate Studies
Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing Winner
Congratulations to Camille Intson, winner of the 2018 Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing for her one-act play Marty and Joel and the Edge of Chaos. Adjudicated by Professors Michael Fox and Jamie Johnston, Camille's play, which will be premiering at Alumnae Theatre on March 21, is preoccupied with exploring relationships between past and present, stasis and progression, time and perception, memory and identity. The play tells the story of two people, the photographer Joel and his subject Marty, who share an evening photoshoot in 1989 and then meet again at Joel’s wedding reception in 2017. While Joel considers his photographs “slivers of the past,” Marty wonders about the troubling nature of time and the possibilities of its capture. Camille hints darkly that something isn’t quite right that first night, and as the evening cuts to and then blends in with 2017, what’s happened to the pair in the intervening years is partially revealed. Sparse, often fragmentary lines of dialogue move quickly between Joel and Marty and mark seamless exchanges linking their past to their present. Throughout, the audience is challenged to try to relate what it hears and sees to a traditional, linear narrative, all while wondering about larger questions the play raises concerning the inscrutability of time, the uncertainty of human relationships, and how those concerns inform and intersect with each other in powerful ways.


March 2, 2018 | The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association
Jamie Johnston awarded Tom Murphy Memorial Award for Outstanding Service to UWOFA
This award acknowledges the hard work and commitment of a contract faculty member. Jamie has worked with UWOFA in various roles since 2010, and again this year he is on the bargaining team.


February 22, 2018 | Western News
Quest to document Indigenous youth suffering through art
Professor Julia Emberley has begun documenting creative works created by Indigenous youth trapped in Canada’s residential schools.


February 9, 2018 | Western News
FRANKENSTEIN 200
Professors Chris Keep and Steven Bruhm tell us how Frankenstein of 1818 is so identifiable 200 years later as Western News celebrates the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein.


February 8, 2018 | Western News
‘Launch’ catapults grad’s career to new level
After taking a Creative Writing class, English & Creative Writing graduate, Sarah Botelho, found a skill for the craft and didn’t look back.


February 7, 2018 | University Affairs
Making sense of the paranormal
Professor Chris Keep among researchers from various disciplines seeking not to debunk strange events, but rather to understand how people engage with them, and what this reveals about the human experience.


February 1, 2018 | London Free Press
English & Creative Writing graduate, Sarah Botelho was the chosen artist on the CTV reality show, The Launch
After writing her first song at age 9, Sarah (aka Poesy) is now fully immersed in the alternative indie world of music. Her name is derived from an archaic word for poetry, and is a callback to her time as an English and Creative Writing major at Western University. Poesy finds inspiration in literature, 1970s rock, thrift stores, and bus rides, to create the narratives present in her songwriting.


January 25, 2018 | Western News
Cold-case prof wins humanitarian award
Michael Arntfield, an Arts & Humanities professor and former police officer, is the recipient of this year’s Western Humanitarian Award. Since 2010, he has worked with Western students to research unsolved historical homicides.


December 14, 2017 | Western News
Western News looks back on 2017
David Huebert, English PhD candidate and Camille Intson, third-year English and Theatre Studies student named Newsmakers of the Year!


November 27, 2017 | Theatre Studies
Students reflect on Destination Theatre
Travel to London, UK for two weeks in June where you will see theatre and participate in workshops with theatre professionals in Central London and Stratford-upon-Avon. Funding is available!


November 18, 2017 | The Gazette
No matter your program, mind your P's and Q's
All students should be required to take an introductory writing course. I might be a stickler for clear, grammatically-correct writing, but I can’t take your arguments seriously if I don’t understand them.


November 17, 2017 | English Undergraduate Studies
Fall 2017 Scholarship recipients
The Department of English & Writing Studies offers over 30 undergraduate awards & scholarships annually. We were proud to recognize the academic achievements of our outstanding students during our 1st Annual Fall Awards Reception.


November 16, 2017 | Western News
Artist, class making town-and-gown connections
Students enrolled in Professor Jones’ Canadian Literature, Creativity and the Local have helped Penn Kemp, BA’66, CertEd’68, the first Poet Laureate of London and former Writer-in-Residence at Western, curate and promote her work and have even partnered with her in writing and composing poetry.


November 9, 2017 | Western News
Heritage plaque honors Writer-in-Residence program
Jan Plug, professor and Acting Chair of the Department of English and Writing Studies, said this latest recognition by the university confirms what he’s known for years, which is the department’s role as a centre for the linked activities of intellectual inquiry, cultural creativity and social engagement.


November 7, 2017 | The Gazette
Every student has a story to tell
Sydney Brooman, Western's Student Writer-in-Residence, believes that students from across all the disciplines represented on campus would benefit if more of those outside the Arts & Humanities took creative writing courses. Read her take on why "creative writing does not belong to any one department — it belongs to people with stories to tell."


November 2, 2017 | Western News
Course looks to capture a ‘Strange Animal’
Tom Cull, London’s Poet Laureate, who teaches in the American and Writing Studies programs, is teaching You’re a Strange Animal: Writing Nature, Writing the Self, a third-year nature-writing elective course. Students spend much time outside of the classroom before sitting down to write poems, fiction and non-fiction works about the nature they encounter.


November 2, 2017 | CBC London
Western Libraries' Archives and Special Collections acquires rare 1685 edition of Shakespeare's Fourth Folio
Having a physical copy of the Fourth Folio helps students appreciate what it would have been like to read a Shakespeare play back in the 17th century.


October 5, 2017 | English Graduate Studies
Dr. Zeinab McHeimech (PhD '17) awarded Governor General's Gold Medal
Dr. Zeinab McHeimech electrified the members of her thesis committee this past summer, who unanimously agreed that her dissertation, *Islam’s Low Mutterings at High Tide: Enslaved African Muslims in American Literature,* was the best they had seen in their collective years in the profession. They also noted that her extraordinarily timely, erudite and original research will transform the fields of Arab American and African diasporic studies, as well as American literary history. The external granting agencies have been equally impressed with Zeinab throughout her graduate studies as she has been awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, a Canada Graduate Scholarship and a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship. Dr. McHeimech is currently a professor of writing and communication at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario.


September 28, 2017 | Western News
New fragments of history link students to past
Western’s Archives and Research Collections Centre recently announced the donation of 10 medieval manuscripts, as well as accompanying custom-designed enclosures, from English and Writing Studies professor Jane Toswell. This collection includes what is now the university’s oldest manuscript, a fragment of Missal of Susanna and the Elders from Germany, circa 1125.


September 28, 2017 | Western News
'Sinking' signals a career on the rise
English PhD candidate David Huebert’s short-story collection, Peninsula Sinking, is out this month from Biblioasis. Quill & Quire, Canada’s magazine on book news and reviews, dubbed Huebert “one of Canada’s most impressive young writers.”


September 21, 2017 | Western News
Coyote: Mainstream is waking up to the fight
Former Writer-in-Residence, Ivan Coyote, returns to campus to deliver a public performance – Neither / Nor: Circumnavigating the Gender Binary in 7000 Easy Steps – followed by author Q&A and book signing at 2 pm on Thursday, Sept. 28, in the Kingsmill Room, Huron University College.


September 14, 2017 | Western News
Camille Intson takes to stages across the country
A third-year English and Theatre Studies student and accomplished playwright, Camille’s works have been produced professionally across the country.


September 14, 2017 | Western News
Sydney Brooman begins her term as Student Writer-in-Residence
As the Student Writer-in-Residence, she hopes to offer events and programming to nurture all writers across campus and the London community, regardless of age, social status or writing experience. She wants to encourage budding writers to work together and share their ideas and words with one another in a collaborative, welcoming environment.


September 7, 2017 | Western News
Daniel MacIvor, playwright, director and actor, 2017-18 Writer-in-Residence
Beginning September 18, 2017 Daniel will be available to offer feedback to, and consultation with, both experienced and novice creative writers from the University and the London community. Contact vivian.foglton@uwo.ca to make an appointment.


September 3, 2017 | The Gazette
Prof. David Bentley: on attending at university
Attending at university is not just a physical act. It’s a way of using your time, in Prospero’s words again, “most preciously.” Indeed, it’s a way of being.


Autum 2017 | The Dalhousie Review
Doing Voices
By David Barrick


2017-18 | Hamilton Arts & Letters
The Death of Daan De Wees
By Aaron Schneider


August 15, 2017 | The Temz Review
Professor Aaron Schneider launches London-based literary journal
Published 4 times/year (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter), this literary journal publishes work from a diverse range of emerging and established voices. In addition to our core editorial team, we have several different groups of readers who are all actively involved in selecting work for publication. Our goal is to reflect a wide variety of editorial perspectives and publish an eclectic mix of writing.


July 27, 2017 | Western News
Sydney Brooman, 2017-18 Student Writer-in-Residence
In September, Brooman will begin her term as the 2017 Student Writer-in-Residence, a unique to North America position developed by the University Students’ Council (USC) and the Department of English and Writing Studies. The mandate of the program is to provide support for an accomplished undergraduate writer while allowing other students to benefit from the writer’s creativity, expertise, and organizational skills.

2016-17 NEWS & EVENTS

July 25, 2017 | English Graduate Studies
Sara Marie Jones Memorial Scholarship
Congratulations to Sarah Harrison, winner of the Sara Marie Jones Memorial Scholoarship for her paper "Resisting a Traditional Recovery Model of Trauma in Joy Kogawa's Obasan through Mad Grief". The committee adjudicating the award, Drs. Manina Jones, Joshua Schuster, and Jane Toswell, agreed that Ms Harrison’s paper “offers a new way of thinking about Kogawa's classic and important novel. Harrison's intervention offers a new paradigm of Mad Studies and especially Mad Grief.” As well, “By addressing the three central characters not as models of recovery but as figures engaged in mad grief,  responding to the racialized and sexualized traumas of their lives in multiple, incommensurate ways that reflect an intersectional model of trauma, Harrison offers a new and powerful way of interpreting the novel.” Awarded annually to a first-year PhD student in English, the Sara Marie Jones Scholarship is valued at $500.


May 12, 2017 | Alice Munro Chair in Creativity
Applications being accepted
The Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Western University invites applications or nominations for the Alice Munro Chair in Creativity. The Alice Munro Chair in Creativity will recognize and honour our Nobel laureate, inspire student writers and foster creative expression of all kinds. Alice Munro is counted among the University’s most extraordinary alumni. This position will be a full-time, Limited Term appointment, with an academic rank commensurate with the successful candidate’s qualifications. The position will reside in the Department of English and Writing Studies, or as a joint appointment with English and Writing Studies and another department in the Faculty, as appropriate. The successful candidate will be expected to maintain a vigorous creative/research program, and to contribute to teaching undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. The appointment will be made in accordance with the relevant University policies and will be for a one- to three-year term. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. The position will commence on July 1, 2018 or as negotiated.


May 11, 2017 | English Undergraduate Studies
Alfred Poynt Award in Poetry Winners
The first prize for the 2017 Alfred Poynt Award in Poetry was awarded to Marta Croll-Baehre, “The Basin Woman”; Runner-Up: Hilary Doyle, “Pound the Garden” and three Judge’s Choice prize were awarded to: Adam Mohamed, “Memory as Film”; Connor Hill, “GUNSHIPS” and Elizabeth Sak, “Dark Waters”.


May 10, 2017 | Western News
Writer-in-Residence looks to marry different voices in role
Daniel MacIvor, a playwright, director and actor, will serve as Western’s Writer-in-Residence for the 2017-18 term. As Western’s 48th Writer-in-Residence, part of Daniel's work on campus will revolve around helping develop the newly renovated Theatre Studies Program, which is attracting much student attention. MacIvor plans to work with students and the broader London community on fostering creative thinking, writing and an appreciation for theatre and the doors of self-discovery it opens, he noted.


May 10, 2017 | English Graduate Studies
McIntosh Prize Competition Winner
Congratulations to Jason Sunder, winner of the McIntosh Prize Competition for his paper “Religious Beef: Untouchable Life, Constitutional Secularism, and Sacred Cows in Arjun Dangle’s ‘The Cantonment has Begun to Shake’”. Jason's paper presented a fresh and ambitious intervention in post-colonial criticism that offered incisive readings of legislative and literary texts. Honourable mentions also go to Hanji Lee, who argued with extraordinary clarity for reading Conrad’s Nostromo as ‘nostalgic metafiction,’ and to Nahmi Lee, for her elegantly argued discussion of the subject-object relations in the materiality of Dickens' London  in Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend.

We are grateful for the collegial occasion that the McIntosh Competition provides, and to all the 4th–year PhD students who shared their research with the community. The Graduate Studies office would like to warmly thank this year’s adjudicators, Professors Mary Helen McMurran, Donna Pennee, and James Purkis.


May 9 & 10, 2017 | English Graduate Studies
McIntosh Prize Competition
Everyone is welcome to join us in AHB 3B02. See schedule for detailsThe McIntosh Prize is an annual prize awarded for the best public lecture given by a fourth-year PhD student on a topic growing out of his or her PhD thesis. The prize was created through a bequest from the Estate of Wilhelmina McIntosh, who died in 1940, and who was a friend of Western.


May 3, 2017 | Fieldnotes Speaker Series
Fashioning an Aristocratic Identity for Posterity: Anne Clifford and the Rhetoric of Clothing
Join us at 2:30 pm in AHB 2R21 for a talk by Jacyln Reed and response by Dr. Madeline Bassnett. This series has been created to highlight the wide range of creative and innovative scholarship developed by graduate students in the Department of English.


April 26-28, 2017 | Public Lecture
Imagining Religious Toleration, 1600-1800
Nine scholars from US and Canadian universities will meet at Western to present papers over three days. All panels will be open to faculty and students at Western, and will be available on this website as podcasts after the event. On the evening our symposium begins, Paul Yachnin, Tomlinson Professor of Shakespeare Studies at McGill University, will present a free public lecture at the London Public Library, titled “Shakespeare and the Theatre of Freedom.”


April 26, 2017 | English Undergraduate Studies
Avie Bennett Prize in Canadian Literature Winner
Congratulations to Jennifer Toombs, winner of the 2017 Avie Bennett Prize. jennifer's paper, "How the Symbol of the B'gwus Functions as a Way of Speaking Back to Colonial Narratives in Monkey Beach" is a thoughtful, well researched, and beautifully composed essay written for English 3880G - First Nations Literatures. This prize is awarded annually for the best essay written by an undergraduate student registered in a Canadian Literature course.


April 20, 2017 | Film Studies
Congratulations, Seline and Jen!
Film Studies Honors students Jen Martin-Cannon and Seline Boer will present research papers at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Undergraduate Conference at the University of Minnesota April 21-22, 2017. SCMS-U is a conference featuring students from North America and around the world presenting their scholarly work on cinema and media. A panel composed of University of Minnesota faculty selected thirty proposals for the fifth annual conference.


April 12, 2017 | Fieldnotes Speaker Series
Romantic Buddhism: Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” and De Quincey’s Confessions
Join us at 2:30 pm in AHB 2R21 for a talk by Logan Rohde and response by Dr. Joel Faflak. This series has been created to highlight the wide range of creative and innovative scholarship developed by graduate students in the Department of English.


April 6, 2017 | Western News
Workshopping Samuels’ ‘Because I Am Your Queen’
Andrea Holstein shares her experience of working alongside Samuels, Dugal and fellow students in this one-of-a-kind learning experience.


April 4, 2017 |  Theatre Studies
Ready, Steady ...
Professor Solga weighs in on her fears and expectations as students in Theatre Studies 3900G - Destination Theatre get ready to head to the UK on June 19.


March 31, 2017 | English Undergraduate Studies
Marguerite R. Dow Canadian Heritage Writing Award Winner
Congratulations to Alero Ogbeide, winner of the 2017 Marguerite R. Dow Canadian Heritage Writing Award for her short story, “The Best Worst Place I’ve Ever Lived”. Alero's essay is a humorous but pointed look at racial difference in small-town Alberta. While evoking stereotypes of isolated northern settings—the extreme cold, a fondness for guns—Ogbeide’s short story also addresses the stereotyping faced by the narrator, as her classmates tell her “I’ve never seen people like you in real life before.” Ogbeide skillfully glances towards and away from these negotiations of racial and cultural difference, finishing the piece with an evocation of the beauty of a northern Alberta spring. In its close look at one community, this story succeeds in addressing many of the larger, and indeed critical, issues of racial identity, belonging, and exclusion that face us as Canadians today.


March 31, 2017 | Public Lecture
Cree-Métis Poet, Teacher, and Scholar Marilyn Dumont
Join us at 2:50 pm in UCC 146 for a public reading followed by a round table discussion with Western graduate students. Co-sponsored with Indigenous Services and Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.


March 30, 2017 | Film Studies
The Western Undergraduate Film Festival
WUFS will be hosting its annual Undergraduate short festival at the Wolf Performance Hall from 7-9 pm. A reception and awards ceremony will be held at Fitzray's right after the festival. Everyone is welcome!


March 30, 2017 | CBC Books
André Alexis's novel Fifteen Dogs, championed by Humble The Poet, won Canada Reads 2017
Humble The Poet, defending Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis, faced off against Measha Brueggergosman, defending Madeline Ashby's Company Town, to decide the winner. On the final day of debates, Humble and Measha were given opportunities to sway panellists Candy Palmater, Jody Mitic and Chantal Kreviazuk through discussions about the books' writing quality, the respective endings and how well they addressed issues important to Canadians. Learn more about André and Humble the Poet in this short video clip.


March 30, 2017 | Western News
Dystopic déjà vu: Trump and the resurgence of cataclysmic classics
Professors Bryce Traister and Miranda Green-Barteet explain what the renaissance of these old dystopic stories tell us about current times.


March 29, 2017 | English Undergraduate Studies
Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing
Congratulations to Jasmeen Siddiqui, winner of the 2017 Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing for her short story, “Yelling All the Way to Hell”. Jasmeen's essay tells the story of Barty, a person without purpose, an eminently forgettable character—virtually, infuriatingly invisible to those with whom he interacts--who finally converts an itinerant childhood into his true calling as a street preacher. On a busy corner in downtown London, Barty settles into his minor daily role in “a tragedy for lives filled with motion and activity, moving, moving” and hones at last a voice and identity worthy of acknowledgement, even imitation. Siddiqui’s prose is lean, at times sparse, yet she manages to create a protagonist with some depth: a plausible youth, a familiar sense of frustration and disappointment with his life, and a view of the world which ultimately rings true with his decision to disseminate the word of God.


March 29, 2017 | Fieldnotes Speaker Series
What "Is" Is Not: Undecidability and the Non-Words ofFinnegans Wake
Join us at 1:00 pm in AHB 2R07 for a talk by Jeremy Colangelo and response by Dr. Allan Pero. This series has been created to highlight the wide range of creative and innovative scholarship developed by graduate students in the Department of English.


March 23, 2017 | Public Lecture
The Black in the Cul-De-Sac: Afro-Pessimism as the Crisis of Critical Theory
Join us at 3:30pm in AHB 3B02 for a talk by Professor Frank Wilderson III. Variations in structural violence mark the essential point of departure for theorizing the disparate positions of worker and slave in civil society. These irreconcilable regimes of structural violence are at the heart of a structural antagonism between Blacks and Human; and are also at the heart of a systemic crisis in critical theory. Sponsored by the Postcolonial Studies Reading Group, the departments of English & Writing Studies and Women's Studies & Feminist Research, the Program in Comparative Literature, and the Center for Theory and Criticism.


March 22, 2017 | English Undergraduate Studies
New English modules
Our Undergraduate English modules have changed! The changes reflect the direction of the field of English Literary studies and the expertise of the faculty in the department. Students will still be required to gain a broad understanding of the history of English literature, but the new modules offer greater flexibility and choice which will allow students to design a program of study which satisfies their own intellectual curiosity. To compliment these increased choices, we are also offering a new lineup of 3000-lvl courses which are focused around narrower themes, genres or issues.


March 22, 2017 | Fieldnotes Speaker Series
"The Story of Seeing": Photography and Memory in Paul Auster's The Invention of Solitude
The Graduate English Society is proud to present the first talk of its inaugural Fieldnotes Speaker Series. Everyone is welcome to join us for a talk by Courtney Church and response by Jeremy Colangelo. This series has been created to highlight the wide range of creative and innovative scholarship developed by graduate students in the Department of English.


March 21-23, 2017 | English Undergraduate Studies
AUDITIONS! Fall Theatre Production - Macbeth
Auditions are held in March so that students can enroll in English 2041F for Fall 2017 and get course credit for their role in the production. All are welcome! Running since 2007, the Fall Theatre Production course draws students from all faculties together to perform, produce and even compose as a team. For more information about the production and the course, please contact the director/instructor: Professor Jo Devereux jdevereu@uwo.ca.


March 21-22, 2017 | Theatre Studies
Theatre Creation Workshop with Mina Samuels & Jacqueline Dugal
Working with a script in process, Because I am Your Queen (a feminist fantasia in one act), we will mess around with the elements of theatricality using a mash-up of physical techniques stolen from Lecoq, Clown, Commedia, Viewpoints and modern dance, as well as the devising structure of Tectonic Theatre Project’s Moment Work. Come dressed to move in neutral clothing. No prior acting experience is required! Mina, the playwright and director, will be present, as will her choreographer – they will be creators, teachers, and guides. Student participants will have the opportunity not only to gain some experience in theatrical devising and physical theatre techniques but also to influence the direction of the script as it develops! Questions? Want to join? Please contact Kim Solga | ksolga@uwo.ca by Mon Mar 13.


March 16, 2017 | Western News
Western celebrates excellence in teaching

Professors M.J. Kidnie and Miranda Green-Barteet are among eleven winners, representing five different faculties, who have been awarded Western’s highest honours for inspiring active and deep learning in their students.


March 16, 2017 | Public Lecture - RESCHEDULED
Killing the Queen Bee: The Dead Mean Girl in Pop Culture
Professor Sara K. Day is an Assistant Professor of English at Truman State University where she teaches courses in YA and Children’s Literature, American Literature, and Composition. She has published widely on constructions of girlhood in contemporary Young Adult Fiction. Her book, Reading Like a Girl: Narrative Intimacy in Contemporary American Young Adult Fiction, was published in 2013. She is co-editor of Female Rebellion in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction and has published essays in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Studies in the Novel, and English Studies in Canada. Co-sponsored with the Department of Women's Studies and Feminist Research.


March 10-11, 2017 | English Undergraduate Studies
Celebrating Excellence in our Undergraduate English Program
Undergraduate English students Chris Austin, Heidi Choi, Laura Brooks, and Purva Mehta presented their research papers at the annual Quebec Universities English Undergraduate Conference (QUEUC) where students from across Canada connect and share their research in a comfortable, collaborative environment that fosters the pursuit of knowledge and the love of learning. Since its inception in 2009, QUEUC has blossomed into the most successful English Undergraduate conference in Canada. Papers presented: "Johnathon Swift's "The Lady's Dressing Room": Scatological Misogyny" (Christopher Austin), "The Recycling of Excrement in Johnathon Swift's Gulliver's Travels" (Heidi Choi), "The Lesser of Two Evils: The Portrayal of Leadership and Political Apathy in William Shakespeare's Richard II and Measure for Measure" (Laura Brooks), "Seeing is Deceiving--Emotional Abuse and It's Impacts on Ann Shirley and Harry Potter" (Purva Mehta).


March 9, 2017 | Writer-in-Residence
Writing Fiction from a Multilingual Perspective: Sharing Ideas and Approaches
Are you a fiction writer who works in multiple languages, and/or writes in English as a second language? Come join us for an evening of discussion with our Writer-in-Residence and other local writers like yourself who are exploring how to craft characters and narrative settings that involve a relationship to more than one language context and history. This is a great opportunity to discuss how to explore immigration narratives, to write dialogue that does not erase accent or dialect, and to explore ideas of living in translation and embodying several simultaneous relationships to language impacting memory, dream, literary culture and diversity. You are invited to bring samples of your writing to share, and your enthusiasm to offer response and ideas to the group. Meet other local writers who bring their relationship with multiple languages and cultures into their writing in English.


March 9, 2017 | The Gazette
Civility and Manners
Dr. David Bentley discusses the importance of civility and manners and their enduring presence at Western University.


March 8, 2017 | Faculty
Professor Mary Helen McMurran is the recipient of the 2017 Arts and Humanities Teaching Excellence Award (Full-Time)
This award recognizes teaching excellence in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the undergraduate and/or graduate level for course design, curriculum development, thesis supervision and educational outreach.


March 7, 2017 | Western News
Remembering Bonnie Burnard, BA'67
The Western community mourns the loss of award-winning author, alumna and former Writer-in-Residence, Bonnie Burnard, BA'67. She passed away on March 4, 2017 at the age of 72.


March 7, 2017 | The Gazette
Antagonist highlights modern day tyrants in Antigone
This student-led production is made up of students from all disciplines across campus, including our own from English & Theatre Studies. Written by Jean Anouilh and adapted by Lewis Galantière, Antigone reimagines the Greek tragedy by Sophocles within the context of the German occupation of France in the 1940s. Compared to the big name musicals and popular 20th century classics university theatre groups frequently produce, a performance based off of a classical text stands out as a unique project in the Western community.


March 4, 11 & 18, 2017 | Film Studies
Japanese Food: A Documentary Film Series
Through beautiful images and heartwarming personal stories, Michael Raine presents a film series at the London Public Library that traces the origins of food in Japan and how it is understood, from the medieval period to the present day. By tracing the development of characteristic foods we can understand how the Japanese culture relates to its natural environment and how some food preferences are still connected to its history and ecology. In Drops of Heaven we are introduced to Yoshiko TATSUMI's "Soup of Life" that is the basis of her teaching on natural food in Japan. Dashi & Shoyu uncovers the history of those most characteristic flavors in Japanese home cooking. Finally, The Birth of Sake shows us the dedicated workers in a small family brewery as they prepare a new batch of Japan's representative alcoholic drink. All films have English subtitles.


March 2, 2017 | Faculty
Professor Thy Phu is the recipient of the Faculty Scholar Award for 2017-2019
Established in 2005, the Faculty Scholar awards recognizes the complete scholar who has maintained an excellent record in teaching and research, and who has recently achieved prominence in one of these two domains. Nominated by faculty deans and selected by the Faculty Selection committee chaired by the Provost, the recipients have an international presence in their discipline and are considered all-around scholars.


March 1, 2017 | Student Writer-in-Residence
Call for Applications
Applications now being accepted for the 2017 Student Writer-in-Residence. It's a great experience, includes a stipend and it looks terrific on the resume! You must be entering your fourth year in 2017-18. Applications due April 15. Created by the USC and co-sponsored by the Department of English and Writing Studies, the Student Writer-in-Residence (SWIR) program provides a unique opportunity for students to take a leading role in promoting creativity.


March 1, 2017 | Summer Shakespeare
Call for Directors & Stage Manager
Join our creative team! Will you be in London this summer and looking for an excellent opportunity to build up your resume while being part of a great Western theatrical tradition? Do you have a secret ambition to direct your favourite Shakespeare play? If so, the deadline to apply for directing or stage managing Western Summer Shakespeare this year has been extended to March 15th.


February 16, 2017 | Public Lecture
Poetry of the Night - Reading the Historical Night Sky Through English Poetry
Join Canadian Astronomer, David H. Levy as he talks about the intricate relationship between the night sky and the works of English Literature. Co-sponsored with the Department of History.


February 8, 2017 | London Public Library
Interlude
Join us for a an evening of poetry readings by Cornelia Hoogland, Blair Trewartha, Kara Smith, and Kevin Shaw at London Public Library - Landon Branch from 7-8:30 pm. Books will be available for purchase. See event listing for details.


February 2, 2017 | Western News
Alumunus finds his calling behind the camera
It was during-and after–an elective first-year Film Studies class he pinpoints as the actual ‘pivotal’ moment when he knew he made the right choice to come to university as a mature student.


February 1, 2017 | Brickenden.org
2016 Outstanding Comedy Win - Summer Shakespeare/Much Ado About Nothing
Congratulations to Jen Hale and Kait Rietdijk, and the whole Much Ado/Western Summer Shakespeare crew, for their 2016 Brickenden Outstanding Comedy win!


February 1, 2017 | CBC Books
2010 Writer-in-Residence named Canada Reads Finalist
Congratulations André Alexis on being named a 2017 Canada Reads finalist! Five Canadians - an actor, a musician, a comedian, a performer and a veteran - will battle it out to become the next Canada Reads champion beginning March 27, 2017.


February 1, 2017 | Film Studies
Silent Film Series
Robert Bruce and Peter Karle present a 4-day Silent Film Series at The Grand Theatre. From February 1st-4th, a unique silent film will be projected with the live musical compositions from Canadian composer Robert Bruce. The films being aired in this series are: Feb 1st, Silent Comedy Shorts: A program of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Harry Langdon. Feb 2nd, It - starring Clara Bow Feb 3rd, Safety Last - starring Harold Lloyd Feb 4th, The General - starring Buster Keaton.


January 25, 2017 | Western News
March fosters community, collective power
Professors Conway and Greene attended the Jan. 21 Women’s March on Washington, one day after the inauguration of Donald Trump. What started as a grassroots movement to “send a bold message to (the) new administration on their first day in office, and to the world, that women’s rights are human rights,” saw millions gather and march around the world.


January 25, 2017 | English Undergraduate Studies
Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing
Submissions are now being accepted for the 2017 Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing! The prize of $250 is awarded competitively to an undergraduate student (any faculty or program including students at the affiliated colleges) who exhibits a developing talent for creative writing.


January 12, 2017 | Western News
Professor bridges gap in elite collection
James Good, an English professor emeritus and former Dean of Arts at Western, established the Dr. James M. Good William Wordsworth-Samuel Taylor Coleridge Collection at Western Libraries. He recently bolstered this collection with the addition of a first edition of Wordsworth’s An Evening Walk, a 1793 collection of poetry of which only 33 copies are known to exist around the world. Western now owns the only copy to reside in Canada.


January — March 2017 | Writer-in-Residence
A Campus Series of Literary Collaborations
A series of four literary events animated by Margaret Christakos, 2016-17 Canada Council Writer-in-Residence. Each event will invite student poets and writers to participate in reading and performance opportunities, and will consider poetry and writing in relation to specific spaces and contexts on campus.


December 14, 2016 | Western News
Remembering Alan Thicke – English graduate, actor, producer, composer and performer
Iconic Canadian actor Alan Thicke, BA’67, best known for playing Jason Seaver on 1980s sitcom Growing Pains, died from a heart attack Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 69. Thicke was playing hockey with his youngest son, Carter, when he suffered the fatal attack. In a 2011 interview with the Alumni Gazette, Thicke playfully admitted he had no idea what he was doing when he arrived on Western’s campus five decades ago.


December 1, 2016 | English Undergraduate Studies
Sidewalk poetry coming to London
As part of their class for English 3777F - Creativity and the Local, Jennifer Ball, Leizel Rafanan and Noelle Schmidt, presented their idea to stamp poems in fresh concrete to the London Arts Council (LAC).


November 30, 2016 | Western News
Remembering Tywin Lannister 1,000 years to the day after his demise
As interest continues to rise in English 2096A - Winter is Coming: A Game of Thrones Professor John Leonard revisits England’s real Game of Thrones.


November 21, 2016 | Theatre Studies
Once again Theatre Studies participated in International Week at Western. Such fun connecting with our students and talking about how Destination Theatre 3900G can help shape their international learning experience. Submit your application here!


November 17, 2016 | The Gazette
Twelve Angry Men, one groundbreaking show
Directed by Film 1022 student Jack Phoenix, Theatre Western delivers a transcendent experience.


November 17, 2016 | Western News
Remembering a Canadian poet, songwriter - Leonard Cohen
Professor David Bentley recalls his first foray into Leonard Cohen’s work, The Spice-Box of Earth, an early collection of poetry.


November 16, 2016 | Writer-in-Residence
Monthly evening readings
Join Writer-in-Residence, Margaret Christakos, and visiting poet Armand Garnet Ruffo for monthly readings at Poetry London.


November 14, 2016 | WordsFest London
Words Festival Presents: Emma Donoghue in Conversation with Bryce Traister
Words Festival presents a reading and conversation with award-winning novelist Emma Donoghue, hosted by the Chair of the Department of English & Writing Studies, Bryce Traister.


November 9-12, 2016 | English Undergraduate Studies
Fall Theatre Production - Q1 Hamlet
Come experience Shakespeare’s Hamlet as you’ve never seen it before! Theatre Studies at Western and the Department of English and Writing Studies proudly presents Q1 Hamlet, the First Quarto of The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke (1603), the earliest printed version of the Bard’s most famous tragedy. Less than half the length of more familiar editions of the play, Q1 Hamlet features live original music and includes a bonus short Tudor Interlude, John Rastell’s “Four Elements. Location: The Arts Project. Tickets: $15 General, $10 Students/Seniors.


November 9, 2016 | Western News
Film festival fills gap in local arts scene
Regional film festivals – such as the inaugural Forest City Film Festival, taking place Nov. 11-13 at the London Public Library’s Wolf Performance Hall – are an important opportunity for local cinephiles and filmmakers to get involved and share their work, said Constanza Burucua, who teaches in the Film Studies and Modern Language and Literature departments at Western.


November 6, 2016 | WordsFest London
John Milton's Poetry
Professor John Leonard will be giving a lecture on Milton's poetry this Sunday, November 6th as part of WordsFest London Canada. Featuring first edition works by Milton from Western Archives.


November 2, 2016 | Western News
Alumnus to explore life of ‘Rebel Angel’
Remembering Ross Woodman – a former English prof, art critic, wizard ... and inspiration.


November 2, 2016 | Western News
Fall Theatre Production - Q1 Hamlet
Class gives ‘bad quarto’ its day on stage. Hamlet Q1 – the first-known printed edition of Shakespeare’s most popular tragedy – is not the text you studied from. It’s not the text traditionally used for theatrical productions, either. In fact, you probably haven’t encountered this version of the play before.


October 27, 2016 | Public Lecture
Sir Christopher Ricks - Mr. Eliot's Mr. Apollinax
Literary critic and scholar, champion of Victorian poetry and Bob Dylan enthusiast – Sir Christopher Ricks once again combines astonishing insight with hilarity during his talk, "Mr. Eliot's Mr. Apollinax".


October 26, 2016 | Macleans
Cool course: “Winter is Coming”: A Game of Thrones
This English course is a serious study of the bestselling novels, examining their morally twisted universe while considering traditions of the romantic epic.


October 25, 2016 | Theatre Studies
Pub Night
EVERYONE IS WELCOME to join us at the Grad Club on October 25 at 5pm for the FIRST-EVER Theatre Studies pub night! We look forward to seeing you all there.


October 1, 2016 | Theatre Studies
Nuit Blanche
For one sleepless night, from sunset to sunrise, students from Theatre Studies 2202F joined the annual, city-wide celebration of contemporary art in the streets of Toronto. Students explored the artistic playground and enjoyed a series of exhilarating contemporary art experiences in unexpected public spaces.


September 21, 2016 | Theatre Studies
Destination Theatre (Theatre Studies 3900G) Information Session
If you would like to learn how you can study contemporary theatre in London, UK and earn a 0.5 credit doing so, please join us!

Course Highlights: live performances; lectures, workshops & seminars at University of London, Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and tours of theatres and archives.
Assignments include: journal component, class blog, performance review and final project. Funding available!


September 9, 2016 | Theatre Studies
Welcome new and returning Theatre Studies students
Join us in the IGAB Atrium at noon for light refreshments. Theatre Studies courses begin in second year, but if you’re entering first year and curious about theatre on campus, please feel free to come along for a slice of cake, some helpful information, and a chance to win prizes courtesy of The Grand Theatre!


September 7, 2016 | Western News
Professor Thy Phu named to the RSC College of New Scholars, Artists & Scientists
Eight Western professors have been named among the nation’s top scholars in the arts, humanities and sciences by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), including six newly named Fellows and two New Scholars.


September 2016 | Alumni
Multimedia maven and alumna, Sam Maggs is the first lady of geek
Having a professor and a mentor like Professor Keep, who believed in my writing even when I was not so confident in it, was really invaluable and gave me the skills and the confidence I needed to go on to a master’s degree and book publishing,” explained Maggs, who studied a rarely researched subgenre of Victorian literature known as ‘sensation fiction’ with Keep.


August 28-31, 2016 | Film Studies
Japanese Musical Films at the Revue Cinema
The Japan Foundation, Toronto presents three Japanese musical films in 35mm at the historic Revue Cinema! This eclectic selection comprises a modern masterpiece of Technicolor tragedy (Memories of Matsuko - Aug 21), an avant garde yakuza comedy (Oh! Bomb - Aug 28), and a bad boy drummer trying to make it big in the glamourous nightclubs of Ginza (The Stormy Man - Aug 28). All films are in Japanese with English subtitles. Free admission.


August 26, 2016 | Association for Theatre in Higher Education
Congratulations Professor Kim Solga. Recipient of the 2016 Award for Excellence in Editing for her achievement in editing Performance and the Global City editors (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and Performance and the City editors (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

2015-16 NEWS & EVENTS

August 12, 2016 | Western News
Friedman embraces career as ‘a grinder’
Although he fell a couple of subjects short of graduating, Friedman was an English major at Western (1989-93). Considered an understated and thoughtful presence, he's now reporting for CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada.


Alfred R. Poynt Award in Poetry Winner
Congratulations Emma Croll-Baehre, winner of the 2016 Alfred R. Poynt Award in Poetry for her submission, "Whereabouts i, ii, iii." Runner-Up is Marta Croll-Baehre, and Judges' Choice honourable mentions go to Robyn Obermeyer, Brittany Renaud, and Noelle Schmidt.


Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing Winner
The winner of the 2016 Lillian Kroll Prize in Creative Writing is Erica McKeen, for her short story, "Our Eyes, Our Tongue." Congratulations, Erica! Honourable Mention of a very High Order to Kevin Heslop.


April 14, 2016 | Film Studies
Film Studies student presents at SCMS Undergraduate Conference
Honors student Geoffrey Williams represented the Film Studies Program at the Fourth Annual Society for Cinema and Media Studies Undergraduate Conference at The University of Colorado, Boulder. The Society for Cinema and Media Studies is the leading scholarly organization in the United States dedicated to promoting a broad understanding of film, television and related media through research and teaching grounded in the contemporary humanities tradition. This annual undergraduate conference, held in a different location every year, provides young scholars an opportunity to convene as professional colleagues and to present research.


April 8, 2016 | Film Studies
Essential Series: "Japan Sings! The Japanese Musical Film" Delights and Illuminates
Film critic Christopher Bourne reviews "Japan Sings - The Japanese Musical Film" at Japan Society, New York curated by Film Studies professor, Michael Raine.


April 7, 2016 | Western Gazette
Game of Thrones course coming to English
During the upcoming 2016-17 academic year, Western students will have the pleasure of being taught by John Leonard, the recipient of the 2013 James Holly Handford Award, in a class based around the popular literary and television series, Game of Thrones.


japan sings

April 6, 2016 | The Wall Street Journal
The Surprising Story of Japanese Movie Musicals
The Wall Street Journal reviews "Japan Sings - The Japanese Musical Film" at Japan Society, New York curated by Film Studies professor, Michael Raine.


April 5, 2016 | CBC/Radio-Canada
David Huebert (PhD 3) named winner of the 2016 CBC Short Story Prize
David's story, "Enigma", will be published in Air Canada enRoute magazine. He will also receive a 10-day writing residency at The Banff Centre and $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts. The remaining finalists will each receive $1,000.


April 5, 2016 | London Public Library
Shakespeare 400
To celebrate William Shakespeare (d. 1616), M.J. Kidnie highlights the 2016 Stratford Shakespeare season, including Shakespeare in Love.


March 29 - 31, 2016
AUDITIONS! Fall Theatre Production - Q1 Hamlet
All are welcome! No need to prepare anything. Auditions and Crew sign-ups are being held in March so that interested students may register in English 2041F for Fall 2016 and hence receive a course credit for their part in the production. No summer rehearsals! For more information, please contact the director, Professor Jo Devereux (jdevereu@uwo.ca).


March 24, 2016 | Western News
Professor John Leonard is the recipient of the 2016 Distinguished University Professorship
The Distinguished University Professorship Award acknowledges sustained excellence in scholarship over a substantial career at Western. The award includes a citation, the right to use the title, an opportunity for a public lecture and a $10,000 prize to be used for scholarly activity at any time.


March 23, 2016 | Film Studies
Norwegian Horror: Rethinking Landscape and Gender through Contemporary Norwegian Cinema
Presented by Gunnar Iversen, Norweigian University of Science and Technology


March 23, 2016 | Film Studies
"Girls will be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema: 1908-1934"
Presented by Laura Horak, Carleton University | Co-sponsored with the Department of English & Writing Studies, Women’s Studies and Feminist Research, and the Western Undergraduate Film Society


March 21 - 22, 2016 | Summer Shakespeare
AUDITIONS! Summer Shakespeare
All are welcome! You do not have to be a Western student to audition.Theatre Studies at Western presents Western Summer Shakespeare 2016 - Much Ado about Nothing. Auditions are being held March 21 and 22. Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script - no need to prepare anything. Show will run July 2016.


March 13, 2016 | Film Studies
IFCO Introduces Filmmaker EH!
IFCO (The Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa Inc.) introduces Filmmaker EH! Canada’s Only National Mobile App for Emulsion Filmmakers. Filmmaker EH! available for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry platforms, provides continuously updated information from a variety of independent emulsion filmmaking resources. The impetus for creating a mobile application that provides access to emulsion filmmaking resources is to encourage the next generation of filmmakers. People are often interested in accessing original emulsion filmmaking resources, but don’t know where to look; the Filmmaker EH! app is IFCO's response to this. IFCO sees this app as a great way to assist aspiring filmmakers to get quick and easy access to: Film Training – Artist Resource Centres; Film Suppliers and Service Providers; Filmmaking Resources – Downloadable Templates, etc.; Film Funding – Government and Industry; Legal Resources for Filmmakers – Copyright and Rights Acquisition, etc.; Film Festivals; Film Schools; and much more.


March 4, 2016 | Bridging Academic Minds (BAM) Conference
The Art of Communication & Success in Research
Dr. M.J. Kidnie provided training in effective communication to BAM conference participants. Kidnie demonstrated how to triangulate the dynamic between performer, audience, and space and analyzed a few non-theatrical examples of effective communication to show how speakers in the “real world” manipulate these elements of performance. The group was also introduced to theatre exercises designed to help speakers gauge the impact of their words and body language on others, and as necessary, to make spontaneous adjustments. As conference co-organizer and BAM co-President, Nasser Chahbar, explained, “Being able to effectively communicate complex research implications to an academically diverse audience is critical. Communication is everything – we start with shared language and meaning in order to arrive at common and socially acceptable understandings. Developing these skills allows us to empathize with others. To really put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, to ultimately understand one another, is how we allow for more thoughtful communication.


March 3, 2016 | Theatre Studies
Theatre Studies Program Launch
Evocative puppets, stunning computer animation energized by a Rock’n’Roll soundscape, and the skills of a master storyteller weave together to bring to life Milton’s astonishing tale. Created, adapted and performed by multi-talented Montreal actor/director/playwright Paul Van Dyck (2013 Neil Munro Intern Director at the Shaw Festival; Oroonoko - Winner: best director, Montreal English Theatre Award; The Harvester - Winner: Best Drama, Atlantic Fringe Festival), PARADISE LOST won Best Production at the New York Frigid (Fringe) Festival and the Atlantic Fringe Festival. Van Dyck and the production were awarded with the prestigious ‘Revelation of the Year’ Award by the Montreal English Critics Circle (MECCA).

The performance on Thursday, March 3 marks the formal launch of the new Theatre Studies program at Western University! We invite the London community to join us before the show from 7pm for a reception that will include lively discussion of performance, creativity, and adaptation for the modern stage. Both nights, stay back for a Q&A with the creative team of PARADISE LOST, Paul van Dyck and Sara Rodriguez.

Launch reception: Mar 3, 7:00 pm
Performances: Mar 3 & 4, 8:30 pm
Location: The Arts Project, 203 Dundas Street, London
Cost: $15 general, $12 student and senior


March 3, 2016 | Western News
Taking to a new stage
Theatre Studies students share why they love studying theatre at Western.


March 1, 2016 | Summer Shakespeare
Call for Director and Stage Manager
Join our creative team! Applications for Director and Stage Manager for Summer Shakespeare 2016 are now being accepted. Summer Shakespeare is a longstanding Western-London tradition of outdoor theatre which runs for five nights in July. This event welcomes participation from Western University, Fanshawe College, and the London community, both in terms of creative team and audience.


February 25, 2016 | Western Gazette
English 3666F students explore mental illness through art
“It’s a play talking about young adults dealing with how to get over the struggles of mental health and it centres on suicide and how others deal with suicide after the loss,” says playwright Meg Cormack, third-year English honours student.


February 25, 2016 | London Free Press
Justifying the ways of Milton
Free Press entertainment reporter James Reaney puts the spotlight on Professors M.J. Kidnie & John Leonard as they give voice to the upcoming performance of Milton’s, Paradise Lost.


February 25, 2016 | Western News
Theatre Studies launches a new conversation on the arts
The new Theatre Studies program is designed to train minds to think about theatre, analyze performance, critique it, understand the economics of it, as well as consider theatre in terms of how it works within a community.


February 11, 2016 | Theatre Studies
Panel discussion with Top Girls
The Departments of English, Theatre Studies and Women’s Studies and Feminist Research are pleased to invite you to a panel discussion with Vikki Anderson, Fiona Byrne, and Julia Course from the Shaw Festival’s acclaimed 2015 production of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls. Please join us in AHB 2R21 from 9:30 - 10:30 am.


January 21, 2016 | Western News
How to die like Bowie, or, we can be heroes
Diana Samu-Visser, PhD Candidate, English & Writing Studies reflects on the death of David Bowie.


January 21, 2016 | The Globe and Mail
#OscarsSoWhite: Why diversity at the movies matters
Cameron Bailey, BA'87, Artistic Director of TIFF, comments on the current #OscarsSoWhite movement in The Globe and Mail.


January 14, 2016 | Western News
Former Western Writer-in-Residence and Alumni earns Oscar nod for her adaptation of her novel, "Room"


January 2016 | The Gazette
Women Beware Women gets 4.5/5 stars!
With expressive line delivery and mesmerizing physicality, the audience was transported with ease into the world of Middleton’s tragedy.


December 8, 2015 | Film Studies
Community Service Learning Film Festival
6 documentary shorts. 14 emerging student filmmakers. Recording reality, desiring the real. Contemporary documentary and community engagement. Western University’s Film Studies course Service Learning Experience fosters creative learning with hands-on experience as emerging filmmakers work with local, not-for-profit organizations. With an emphasis on activism, humanitarianism and volunteerism, visual records are created collaboratively as films give voice to marginalized identities and stories.


December 2, 2015 | Film Studies
The Film Festival Circuit
The Film Studies Program presents Dina Iordanova, Professor of Film Studies and Director of the Institute for Global Cinema and Creative Cultures at St. Andrews. She has authored and edited multiple books, including Cinema of the Other Europe (2003), Digital Disruption (2012) and Film Festivals and the Middle East (2014).


November 25, 2015 | Western Presidential Lecture Series
The importance and relevance of the imaginative life
Paul Kennedy, host of CBC Radio’s Ideas, Dr. David Bentley, Professor and Department Chair Bryce Traister and Western English alumna Liz Nash, discuss the importance and relevance of the imaginative life and an education devoted to the arts and humanities.


November 19, 2015 | Western News
Raising the curtain on Destination Theatre
In January 2017, Destination Theatre will have its first full outing: 25 students from across the university plus two instructors will jet over to Britain for two full weeks of theatre, workshops, artists’ talks, guest visits to some of the coolest back stages around, and seminars with some of the best performance scholars in the country.


November 19, 2015 | Film Studies
Tug of War
Film Studies, Modern Languages & Literatures, The Japan Foundation and the Japanese Student Association present a special screening of Tug of War during Western's International Week festivities.


November 16-20, 2015 | Theatre Studies
International Week
As part of the International Week at Western, Theatre Studies will be participating in the International Opportunities Fair and the Arts & Humanities International Showcase to talk about how students can create an international learning experience with Destination Theatre.


November 11-14, 2015 | Undergraduate English Studies
Fall Theatre Production - Women Beware Women
The Performance Studies Research Group at Western is pleased to announce a program of events in conjunction with the Department of English and Writing Studies production of Thomas Middleton’s Women Beware Women. Be sure to catch the pre- and post-show Q&A with the cast and crew. All welcome!


October 6, 2015 | Western News
Ferguson and Halbedl: Film looks to add visibility for trans kids
Limina, the latest film by Florian Halbedl, BA’09 (Film Studies, Medical Sciences), left, and Joshua M. Ferguson, BA’09 (Film Studies), centres on an intuitive gender-fluid child named Alessandra.


September 8, 2015 | Western News
Brush named to Royal Society of Canada
Professor Kathryn Brush was named a 2015 Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the highest honour a scholar can achieve in the arts, humanities and sciences.


September 3, 2015 | Film Studies
Film students take top prize
Western Film students take Best Short Documentary at Montreal Film Festival. Jayne Clarke, director, and classmates Sam McGuinness, Travis Pulchinski, Brad Capstick, and Angela Clemente won the prize for their film "Posted", a snapshot of Instagram celebrity Mina Gerges. View on vimeo >>


July 23, 2015 | Film Studies
“Mediated Worlds: Sociality, Publicness and Celebrity”
Professor Michael Raine presented a lecture at a two-week summer program sponsored by the Kadokawa Culture Promotion Foundation Media-Content Research Project in conjunction with the University of Tokyo. The annual summer program focuses on various aspects of Japanese popular media culture.


Toswell wins best book prize | Medieval Studies
The Anglo-Saxon Psalter by Jane Toswell, English & Writing Studies, was recently awarded Best Book on an Anglo Saxon Topic by International Society of Anglo-Saxonists.

2014-15 NEWS & EVENTS

June 2015 | Film Studies
Small Cinemas at a Crossroads
Size matters – this is how one could capture in a slogan the ongoing research undertaken by several Film Studies faculty members, who focus on the opportunities and challenges faced by cinemas in small nations across the globe. But when is a nation or a cinema “small”? The cinema of small nations, says Professor Tobias Nagl, is usually understood as the film production of independent states with a population so small that their domestic market hardly supports the development of a homegrown film industry, making filmmakers either dependent on state funding, transnational co-production strategies or creative guerilla tactics.

After an international conference at Western in 2010 that explored these issues, Janina Falkowska, Tobias Nagl and Janelle Blankenship have now published two anthologies on the topic. Small Cinemas in Global Markets: Genres, Identities, Narratives, edited by Lenuta Giukin Janina Falkowska, David Desser, addresses aspects such as identity, revisiting the past, internationalized genres, new forms of experimental cinema, markets and production, as well as technological developments of alternative small screens. This anthology addresses the need to analyze the impact of small industries at local, regional, and global levels.

European Visions. Small Cinemas in Transition, edited by Janelle Blankenship and Tobias Nagl, examines the challenges cinemas in small European countries have faced since 1989. The volume explores how notions of scale and small cinemas relate to questions of territory, transnational media flows and globalization. Employing a variety of approaches from industry analysis to Deleuze & Guattari’s concept of the "minor," contributions address the relationship of small cinemas to Hollywood, the role of history and memory, and the politics of place in post-Socialist cinemas. A prominent film critic in Germany has written that the “global reach of the editors and contributors” of European Visions is “impressive..


March 19, 2015 | Film Studies
Film Screening with Janina Falkowska
Western University Film Society presents a screening of "Joanna", an Oscar-nominated film by Polish director Aneta Kopacz, and a collection of Austrian short films.


March 18, 2015 | Film Studies
Regional TV: Affective Media Geographies
Thomas Lamarre, Professor in East Asian Studies, Art History, and Communication Studies at McGill University, discussed the transnational and transmedial movement of the Japanese anime series Hana yori dango (Boys Before Flowers) and Captain Tsubasa within the context of contemporary "Asianism." This event was sponsored by The Visual Cultures Research Group.


March 16, 2015 | The Gazette
Big Screen Dreams: Western Undergraduate Film Festival
Film lovers and filmgoers can look forward to Western Undergraduate Film Society’s annual Film Festival on Friday, March 27. The festival will be playing student made short films and awarding them for their efforts.


November 20, 2014 | Western News
Theatre revival takes students beyond the stage
Theatre thrived on campus when poet and playwright James Reaney taught at Western from 1960 until 1992. It was the ‘heyday of performance’ in what was then known as the Department of English.


November 11, 2014 | Medieval Studies
Medieval Day
Everyone is welcome to join us from 10 - 5 pm for a celebration of all things medieval! Experience a manuscripts workshop, banners, various displays and opportunities to chat and mingle with campus medievalists all day. Details to follow.


November 5-8, 2014 | Undergraduate English Studies
Fall Theatre Production - Faustus
The Department of English and Writing Studies proudly presents Faustus. Everyone welcome!


October 30, 2014 | Western News
The World Cup, post-Wall cinema and the re-rebranding of Berlin
As our plane from Copenhagen was approaching the flat Berlin skyline on a sunny afternoon in July, we did not yet know the flight of the victorious German soccer team was scheduled to arrive from Brazil only a few minutes later. Once we had picked up our suitcases with clothes, baby toys and books for our sabbatical and entered the arrival hall of Tegel airport, the signs of athletic – and national – pride could hardly be missed: flags everywhere, children with painted faces, cheering girls in soccer tricots and a few men who already had one too many beers, waiting behind the barriers in eager anticipation of their heroes.


October 23, 2014 | Western News
'Beautiful' work turns the pages of the past
At first glance, it looks more like something you might rest your feet on rather than read. But at more than 3-inches thick, and a good 20-inches high and 12-inches wide, the Decretalium libri V. Gregorii Papae cum ordinaria glossa Berhardt is one of the gems of Western Libraries’ collection.


October 21, 2014 | Western News
Western music historian makes near 1,000 year-old discovery
After years of study, many deep in the manuscript room at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, an award-winning musicologist from Western University discovered the earliest surviving handwritten manuscripts featuring notation above musical text or lyrics – a technique fundamentally still used today.


September 23 - October 21, 2014 | Medieval Studies
Lecture Series - Three More for Thee
Raise the portcullis and lower the drawbridge. Once again, three distinguished faculty members of Western University's Medieval Studies program will share their expertise during the lecture series held at the London Public Library. Everyone is welcome.


September 9, 2014 | Western News
Two of our own named to the prestigious Royal Society of Canada
Professor Julia Emberley and Emeritus Professor Frank Davey are among six Western University scholars recently named to the prestigious Royal Society of Canada, in recognition of their scholarly and artistic achievements.


September 3, 2014 | Huffpost Living
English 2092F/G - The Many Faces of Harry Potter named one of Canada's coolest classes
This course examines the Harry Potter series in relation to the gothic novel, detective fiction, fantasy, adventure, and even the dystopian novel.


2014-15 Writer-in-Residence
Gary Barwin is a writer, composer, multimedia artist, and educator and the author of seventeen books of poetry and fiction as well as books for both teens and children. His work has been widely performed, broadcast, anthologized and published nationally and internationally. His latest book is Moon Baboon Canoe (poetry, Mansfield Press, 2014.) and he has just completed a novel, Yiddish for Pirates.

2013-14 NEWS & EVENTS

June 3, 2014 | Western News
'Counterfeit' child shows more than meets the eye
Kids aren't as innocent as they seem, says Steven Bruhm. Bruhm, a professor in the Department of English and Writing Studies, recently published The Counterfeit Child in a special issue of English Studies in Canada titled Childhood and Its Discontents, edited by Nat Hurley.


May 17, 2014 | The Gazette
Faces of Western: Western student interns at Cannes
A Western student has landed a job working as an intern at the biggest film festival in the world. Alissa Chater, a fourth-year film studies student, will be bumping shoulders with at the Cannes International Film Festival this month.


April 3, 2014 | The Gazette
From film critic to festival director
Western graduate, Gazette alumnus and current director of the Toronto International Film Festival, Cameron Bailey, delivered a lecture on the development of a global brand for TIFF. It has been a long journey for Bailey, who started writing movie reviews for the Gazette in the 1980s. Bailey remembers the experience at The Gazette and how it got him where he is today.


March 27, 2014 | Western News
Tolkien translation of Beowulf adds little – beyond cash
Nearly a century ago, J.R.R. Tolkien, Anglo-Saxon scholar and author of the famed  The Lord of the Rings trilogy, translated  Beowulf, the oldest surviving Old English epic poem. His translation is set to come out in May, thanks to his son, Christopher Tolkien. But the publication of Tolkien's Beowulf is problematic on a number of levels, said Jane Toswell, who teaches Old English language and literature at Western.


March 25, 2014 | London Free Press
Alice Munro Chair in Creativity
Seeking scholar to fill full-time, three-year renewable academic position.


March 21, 2014 | Medieval Studies
"The Psalms in England before 1200: Were they in English?"
Presented by Prof. M.J. Toswell in UC 224A.


March 13, 2014 | Western News
Professor John Leonard is honoured for a lifetime of Milton work
His recent book, Faithful Labourers, has won the 2013 James Holly Hanford Award for "distinguished monograph on Milton." Professor Leonard is among an exclusive few who have won the Hanford Award three times.

March 5, 2014 | The Gazette
Lights! Cameras! Zombies! Action!
Have you been hearing about zombies seemingly everywhere lately? Well, good news, you aren’t going crazy — it’s actually happening.Zombies, who you may recognize as the mindless walking dead creatures who occasionally feast on humans, have penetrated popular culture to such an extent that they now garner university courses dedicated to them — even at Western.


January 2014 | Film Studies
Screening and Benshi Performance: Yasujiro Ozu’s Passing Fancy (1933) and Yasujiro Ozu’s Dragnet (1933)
A Public Lecture and Performance by Japanese Benshi Ichiro Kataoka. Ichiro Kataoka also gave a master class in benshi history and performance. (Events co-sponsored with Performance Studies and Modern Languages and Literatures).


January 1, 2014 | The Globe and Mail
Alice Munro’s alma mater has plan to turn Nobel fame into new fundraising
As Alice Munro’s daughter, Jenny, stood in Stockholm to accept the Nobel Prize in literature on her mother’s behalf, the new laureate’s alma mater was at the ready, hoping to capture some of the attention.


December 4, 2013 | Medieval Studies
Medieval Christmas Celebration
Enjoy presentations about medieval life and refreshments and merriment with the students enrolled in Medieval Studies! Everyone welcome to join us at 4:30 pm in Conron Hall!


November 28, 2013 | Western News
Professor's exploration of Milton masterpiece drawing rave reviews
John Leonard, Western English professor and renowned John Milton scholar, recently published Faithful Labourers: A Reception History of ‘Paradise Lost’, a two-volume work dealing with centuries of Milton scholarship. It has been praised for its attention to detail and fair-mindedness, for its contributions to astronomical thought in Milton’s time and has been called “one of the most sustainedly informative and carefully pondered single-authored academic books on Milton’s Paradise Lost ever to have been published.”Western News reporter Adela Talbot recently spoke to John Leonard about his most recent publication.


November 2013 | flickr
Celebrating 40 years of the Writer-in-Residence Program
See photos from the Moveable Feast gala.


October 1, 8 & 15, 2013 | Medieval Studies
Medieval Studies Lecture Series
Tuesday, October 1: Henrik Lagerlund (Philosophy) will look at "Love in medieval times"

Tuesday, October 8: Susan Small (Modern Languages) will discuss "The medieval werewolf"

Tuesday, October 15: Margaret McGlynn (History) will look at "How not to be executed in Tudor England"

All events are FREE to the public.


September 2013 | Western News
Congratulations Leanne Trask, Graduate Affairs Assistant. Winner of the 2013 Western Award of Excellence.


August 6, 2013 | Western News
New documentary looks to collect games, memories
Video games have come a long way since Nintendo first dominated the market in the 1980s. Three decades later, Rob McCallum ((BA’04, Film Studies) has plans to go a long way to document the Nintendo saga, all the while hunting for its classic games.


2013 | Medieval Studies
Jake Barnes' translation of a passage from Beowulf is like nothing you have ever heard before. Jake, a Western Medieval Studies and Music student, chose to breathe some new life into the epic poem by interpreting it through the music of the popular band, The Lumineers. Based on the band's recent award-winning hit "Ho Hey", Jake's recording is a wonderfully creative interpretation of both the medieval text, and the course assignment from Prof. Toswell's Medieval Studies 1020 course.

Click here to listen to Jake's Beowulf recording.


2013 | Film Studies
Jagiellonian University honors Professor Falkowska with Habilitation Degree
Janina Falkowska, Professor in Film Studies, has been involved in international projects with Poland and other European countries for the past 15 years. She has participated in international conferences dealing with Europe and the European unification project and has developed a steady research relationship with the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, the oldest university in Poland. With the participation of the Jagiellonian University, she has organized conferences and workshops in Poland and Canada.

Her research interests involve not only cinemas in Poland and other European countries but also small cinemas in other geographical regions. Along this line, she has been involved in the organization of three international conferences on small cinemas in Canada, the United States and Romania. Together with David Desser and Lenuta Giukin, she has most recently edited a book Small Cinemas in Global Markets. Genres, Identities, Narratives.

To honor her great contributions to the promotion of Polish cinema abroad and to recognize her Full Professorship in Europe, in 2013 Professor Falkowska was awarded a habilitation degree by the Jagiellonian University at a lavish ceremony in the university’s oldest Great Hall. The photograph depicts this medieval ceremony.


2013 | English & Theatre Studies
Professor M.J. Kidnie awarded the 2013-14 Graham and Gale Wright Distinguished Scholar Award and Arts and Humanities Teaching Excellence Award.

2012-13 NEWS & EVENTS

March 26, 2013 | The London Free Press
The 15th-century religious relic the star of the show as the university launches a new academic program
An extensive 15th-century religious manuscript from the pre-French Revolution city of Lille that belonged to a man by the name of Canon Grandel, who very likely used the book for his private devotions, Western University music history professor Jim Grier said.


March 26, 2013 | Western News
Western launches Medieval Studies program
Join us as we celebrate the launch of the new Minor in Medieval Studies, and unveil the newest manuscript acquisition to the Western Libraries collection: Canon Grandel's prayer book. Jim Grier, from the Faculty of Music, will be present to discuss the importance of this historic artifact, the only complete manuscript in Western’s possession. Brief remarks followed by refreshments.


2013 | Canadian Society of Medievalists
Grier awarded with Margaret Wage Labarge Prize
Western Music and Medieval scholar, Jim Grier, was recently awarded the Margaret Wage Labarge Prize for books published in 2012. Greir's book, Ademari Cabannensis, Opera Liturgica et Poetica: Musica cum Textibus, was selected by a committee within the Canadian Society of Medievalists as the best book published by a Canadian scholar in that year.


Professor Alison Conway
2012-13 Graham and Gale Wright Distinguished Scholar


joel

Professor Joel Faflak
2012-13 Arts and Humanities Faculty Scholar Award


Professor Michelle Hartley
2012-13 Arts and Humanities Teaching Excellence Awards


kidnie

Professor M.J. Kidnie
2012-13 Scotiabank/University Students' Council Award of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching


pero

Professor Allan Pero
2012-13 Arts and Humanities Teaching Excellence Awards


Professor Matthew Rowlinson
2012-13 Faculty Scholar Award

2011-12 NEWS & EVENTS

Professor Steven Bruhm
2011-12 Graham and Gale Wright Award


Professor Matthew Rowlinson
2011-12 Faculty Scholar Award


May 24, 2012 | Western News
Film class turns camera onto community
Nicole Cheese didn’t know what she would discover when she looked through her camera’s viewfinder. What she captured amazed even her. Offered by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities for the first time last semester, the third-year course Special Topics in Film Studies: Service Learning took students out of the classroom and into the community where they spent nearly four months at a number of community-based organizations.


April 12, 2012 | Western News
Filmmaker stands 'Alone' atop festival
Social media, the very tool that's brought the world together, is likewise responsible for worldwide alienation, according to one Western student.